DON’T TRY TO BE ‘HIP’

Summers rips Joe

Former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is stepping up his criticism of President Biden’s attempts to fight inflation, warning this week that the administration’s embrace of “hipster” antitrust policies could drive prices even higher.

Summers (inset) noted the antitrust crackdown led by Biden’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission carries “real risks” during a period of decades-high inflation.

“Policies that attack bigness can easily be inflationary if they prevent the exploitation of economies of scale,” Summers tweeted. “Likewise, policy focused on protecting competitors or communities or limiting layoffs are likely to raise costs & prices.”

Prior warning

Summers previously warned against the Biden administration’s antitrust push in December after the president and top advisers signaled plans to crack down on the largest meatproducing firms and oil companies.

Summers’ Twitter thread expanded on remarks he made during an earlier interview on Bloomberg Television.

Summers was reacting to a recent speech by Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who called for enhanced antitrust and warned that “corporate power has grown to levels that leave our fellow citizens concerned and confused.”

Summers said, “What is badly misguided and potentially dangerous to our economic future is the set of doctrines that people jokingly refer to as ‘hipster antitrust.’ ”

Summers added that an overly aggressive antitrust policy that loses focus on protecting consumers “tilts very easily into a kind of dangerous populism.”

He said that although the Fed holds the “primary responsibility” to address inflation, Biden policies can also impact prices.

Biden and his team argue that a lack of competition in key sectors has allowed major players to jack up prices.

But Summers tweeted, “There are many areas like transitory inflation where serious economists differ. Antitrust as an anti-inflation strategy is not one of them.”