Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management

This is a bold book: bold in challenging the intellectual frameworks that shaped antitrust enforcement in the previous century but appear ineffective in the age of asset management, bold in proposing remedies for the resulting concentration of market and political power, and bold in examining how one particularly influential asset manager came to shape—and at times distort—the academic discourse surrounding it. – Martin Schmalz, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
Antitrust ignores the gale force of financialization at its peril. Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management exposes how financial capitalism has fundamentally rewritten the rules of our economy and offers a definitive roadmap for structural reform. – Denise Hearn, coauthor of The Myth of Capitalism
Andrew McLean’s Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management is an engaging, sometimes riveting book: a kaleidoscope of the history and evolution of the control of markets by financiers and investors—led, in modern times, by asset managers who orchestrate roll-ups and overlapping top shareholding in rival companies. This is a wise, perceptive, and carefully researched work with a strong perspective on effective antitrust and corporate power. – Eleanor Fox, New York University School of Law
Essential reading for anyone looking to understand how finance built monopoly capitalism. Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management reveals a path forward for meaningful restraint of finance-led corporate power. – Michelle Meagher, author of Competition Is Killing Us
Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management fills a major gap in the competition policy discourse by reconnecting financial power and corporate power—two issues that historically were intertwined and inspired populist politics in the United States. Breaking down the current separation between these topics, Andrew McLean explains how Wall Street’s relentless quest for easy and substantial profits has contributed to pervasive monopoly and oligopoly power in the American economy. He offers a sophisticated account of both how we got here and how we can start building a more just and democratic economy. – Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the Open Markets Institute
Andrew McLean has done a masterful job of explaining how the financialization of the US economy and the rise of asset managers have contributed to unhealthy economic concentration and collusion. More importantly, he has thoughtful recommendations for how to address the problems of private equity roll-ups and horizontal shareholding through increased antitrust enforcement, corporate governance reform, and legislation restructuring the financial sector. This is both first-rate research and a very good read. – Spencer Weber Waller, Director of the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago
Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management is destined to be a classic work of American business and financial history, as lucid and engaging as it is provocative and inspiring. This book is both a clarion call for change and a practical legal blueprint for achieving it. – Marc Moore, University of Nottingham School of Law
A devastating and essential critique of how asset managers have conquered American industry. Through a thorough historical analysis, Andrew McLean reveals how asset managers have perfected what J. P. Morgan pioneered: the total subordination of competition to financial return. They own the portfolio companies, they dominate the shareholder base, they direct the boards. And nobody’s stopping them. – Christina M. Sautter, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law
In this clear, informative, and thought-provoking policy history, Andrew McLean shows how lawmakers effectively contained the financialization of the US economy in the past and how this achievement can provide a template for a more innovative, equitable, and sustainable future. Antitrust and the Age of Asset Management will be a resource not only for jurists but also for historians of US business, finance, and political development. – Richard R. John, Columbia University

Andrew P. McLean is Lecturer of Law and Political Economy at the University of Edinburgh.

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