type: timeline_event
Robert Bork publishes "The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War With Itself," providing the intellectual foundation for abandoning antitrust enforcement and enabling corporate monopolization over the next five decades. Drawing on Chicago School economics from Aaron Director and other University of Chicago scholars, Bork argues that "consumer welfare" and protection of competition, rather than competitors, should be the sole goal of antitrust law - a standard that in practice permits massive corporate consolidation as long as consumer prices don't immediately rise. The book fundamentally redefines antitrust law's purpose, replacing concerns about concentrated economic power, market structure, and political influence with a narrow focus on short-term price effects. Within one year, the Supreme Court adopts Bork's framework, declaring in 1979 that Congress designed the Sherman Act as a "consumer welfare prescription." However, Bork's use of "consumer welfare" deliberately diverges from economists' definition, creating lasting ambiguity that permits courts to approve mergers and monopolistic practices that economists recognize as harmful. The timing of Bork's publication - simultaneous with Heritage Foundation's expansion, Cato's founding, and conservative infrastructure building - demonstrates the coordinated ideological dimension of institutional capture, providing judicial and intellectual legitimacy for corporate power consolidation while think tanks provide policy infrastructure and political support.