By: Spencer Weber Waller
No one will ever know exactly why Franklin Roosevelt hired
Thurman Arnold as head of the Antitrust Division of the Justice
Department in 1938. It may simply have been that head of the
Antitrust Division was the first important administration job
available when Arnold’s supporters and friends sought a full-time
Washington position for him. While the nomination proved to
be an awkward and controversial choice, it was also an inspired
choice. For the next five years, Thurman Arnold revitalized
antitrust law and enforcement and changed the entire focus of the
New Deal from corporatist planning to competition as the
fundamental economic policy of the Roosevelt administration.
Those who favor a consumer-friendly competitive economy owe him a
debt that transcends the specific cases he brought and the
doctrines he espoused. This Article is a look at that
legacy.
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