STEPHEN MOORE: Don't let the FTC tarnish Trump's golden age of capitalism
We are living in the golden age of American capitalism.The S&P 500 just closed at a record high.GDP is projected to grow 2.5% this year.
Corporate earnings are strong, AI investment is booming, and the private sector is firing on all cylinders.None of this happened by accident.
President Trump and Vice President Vance came into office with a clear mandate: restore confidence in the American economy, unleash the private sector, and get government out of the way — and the results speak for themselves.That stands in sharp contrast to what came before.Under the Biden administration, prices for everyday Americans reached levels not seen in a generation — and rather than focus on the real drivers of inflation, Lina Khan's FTC was busy blocking deals that would have created jobs and lowered costs.
The mismatched priorities were staggering.While American families struggled with rising egg prices, soaring drug costs, and inflation that hit every corner of their lives, Khan's FTC was on a search-and-destroy mission for private sector activity.
She boasted that 43 mergers were abandoned on her watch and counted every killed deal as a "victory." When asked whether companies abandoning deals under government pressure was a win, Khan said simply: "That's right."LIZ PEEK: THE TRUMP ECONOMY IS DOING BETTER THAN THE MEDIA WANT TO ADMITFortunately, the Federal Trade Commission under Chairman Andrew Ferguson has proven to embody a very different spirit.He pledged to "stop Lina Khan's war on mergers" and restore "certainty and clarity" to the review process.
That means reviewing mergers on the merits, not on ideology.It means recognizing that as industries evolve, companies must do the same — often through consolidation — or risk being left behind.
A company that can't adapt serves no one: not its employees, not its customers, and not the American economy.The FTC is currently reviewing several mergers that could add to the luster of our golden age and help families wh...