Sheldon Richman on antitrust laws

The argument against antitrust law is that it misconstrues the market.  When free it is not a static condition but a process in perpetual motion, in which entrepreneurs are always trying to profit by better serving customers.  In an unmolested market the threat of potential competition would do as much to keep a single firm on the customers’ side as actual competition.  So quantitative indicators are misleading.  As D. T. Armentano says, high profits in an industry with one or two firms is not a barrier to new competition but an engraved invitation.  Moreover, even a cartel agreement among a few sellers couldn’t prevent “cheating” by parties to increase revenues; nor could it prevent new entrants from taking advantage of the dominant firms’ disregard of consumer welfare.

~ Sheldon Richman, "TGIF" Bust the Conservative 'Trust Busters'," The Libertarian Insitute, April 30, 2021