How Much Brandeis Do the Neo-Brandeisians Want?

The neo-Brandeis school of antitrust has suddenly emerged as a viable challenger to the reigning consumer welfare establishment. Assuming the mantle of Brandeis gives the neo-Brandeisians a historically grounded brand but also comes with some baggage. Among other things, the neo-Brandeisians need to be prepared to answer the following questions: (1) Will they follow Brandeis in seeing bigness as a curse not only in business but also in government? (2) Will they break cleanly with welfarism and adhere to a moral, social, and political theory of anti-bigness, even at the cost of efficiency? and (3) Will they commit themselves genuinely to Brandeis’s empiricism—that facts on the ground trump theories, wherever the facts may lead?