Unintended Consequences
Unintended Consequences
Cato Institute
There’s Nothing Standard about Standard Oil: Lessons for Modern Antitrusters
33 minutes Posted Sep 11, 2025 at 12:00 pm.
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Show notes

The standard, classroom story about the history of antitrust starts with crusading progressive activists breaking up the Standard Oil trust in 1911 to save consumers from corporate greed. But a closer look at the case shows something rather different: a story about anti-competitive rent-seeking hidden in the guise of fighting for the little guy. Peter and Paul discuss William Shughart’s Regulation article “Reappreaising Standard Oil” and then apply what they learn to contemporary antitrust cases like Epic Games v Apple.


In conjunction with Regulation Magazine Summer 2025 edition.


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