<p>精神航空公司已经永久关闭，这对航空旅行行业来说是个坏消息。失去这一国家顶尖的低成本航空公司将意味着航空公司之间的竞争减少——并可能导致机票价格上涨。</p>
<p>但精神航空的不幸倒闭可能带来一个积极的转机：这是联邦和州级反垄断监管机构结束新布兰代斯主义运动的绝佳机会——这一运动在过去五年中越来越受欢迎，通常被称为 “新反垄断”。</p>
<p>这一运动试图将反垄断政策的重点从长期以来保护消费者免受反竞争行为的关注转移开。取而代之的是，倡导者主张一个以市场结构本身为中心的框架，接受 “大就是坏” 的理念，针对大型公司及其影响力——即使这些公司正在降低价格并使消费者受益。</p>
<p>精神航空的倒闭证明了许多法律和经济专家多年来的警告：仅仅因为规模而阻止合并或惩罚规模并不能帮助消费者。在这种情况下，结果恰恰相反。</p>
<p>保守派正确地指责拜登政府让精神航空公司破产。在总检察长梅里克·加兰的监督下，在交通部部长皮特·布蒂吉格的支持下，司法部与哥伦比亚特区、马萨诸塞州和纽约州联合起诉，试图阻止 2023 年精神航空与捷蓝航空的合并。</p>
<p>这项合并不仅会拯救精神航空及其 17,000 名员工，还会创造一个新的、全球规模的竞争者，以对抗像达美和联合航空这样的高价航空公司。精神航空已经证明能够通过其低价票价降低航空行业的价格。与规模更大的捷蓝航空的合并只会进一步扩大这一效果。</p>
<p>但拜登政府并不信服。他们的诉讼声称：“捷蓝收购精神航空将消除 ‘精神效应’，即精神航空在市场上的存在迫使其他航空公司，包括捷蓝，降低票价。”</p>
<p>这不仅是错误的，替代方案实际上是消除精神航空本身，而不仅仅是 “精神效应”。没有一家愿意注入资金的大公司，航空公司将无法生存。</p>
<p>不幸的是，司法部及其盟友州联盟成功说服一名联邦法官作出有利于他们的裁决，阻止了合并。一年半后，精神航空终于耗尽了资金，申请破产。</p>
<p>糟糕的反垄断政策导致了这家企业的崩溃。在过去 40 年中，反垄断政策是以消费者福利标准为指导——在这一标准下，政府仅在合并或合同直接伤害消费者时才会干预——负责监管的机构决定采取更意识形态的方式。他们用对企业合并的一般厌恶取代了消费者福利标准，即使在合并是最佳结果的情况下，比如精神航空。</p>
<p>今天，精神航空可能已经消失，但特朗普政府仍然可以从其经历中吸取教训。新布兰代斯主义的幽灵仍然在联邦政策中徘徊。</p>
<p>在 2024 年，特朗普总统将联邦贸易委员会主席莉娜·汗（新布兰代斯主义的主要倡导者）替换为安德鲁·弗格森，后者承诺停止 “挑选赢家和输家”，并向企业保证委员会将不干预不会对美国经济造成伤害的合并。</p>
<p>为了向企业保证，弗格森迅速结束了联邦贸易委员会对百事可乐的诉讼，后者因向能够批量购买的企业提供批发定价交易而受到指控。新布兰代斯主义者反对这一做法，因为通常只有大型公司才能以这种规模进行采购。但实际上，这些折扣有助于降低整个供应链的成本，并最终降低结账时的价格。</p>
<p>联邦贸易委员会似乎准备摆脱新布兰代斯主义的遗产。然而，即使在今天，仍然有许多此类案件尚未解决。</p>
<p>尽管委员会结束了对百事可乐的诉讼，但迄今为止仍然保留了类似的行动。其中一起是针对南方格拉泽（Southern Glazer's），该公司是美国最大的酒类分销商。针对南方格拉泽的诉讼，弗格森在最初提出时表示反对，同样指控南方格拉泽在大型商店降低价格的价格歧视，尽管这些折扣在高通胀时期降低了消费者价格。</p>
<p>许多州仍在与电信公司 HPE 和 Juniper 的合并作斗争。反垄断专家反复指出，这笔交易甚至不会触发历史上开启反垄断合并调查所需的最低市场份额结构假设。美国情报界也表示，这笔合并对国家安全至关重要。</p>
<p>接替新布兰代斯主义倡导者的反垄断执法者无疑面临艰巨的任务。向持怀疑态度的记者解释，撤回反垄断诉讼并不是对大企业的不公平偏袒，而是对美国消费者的利益，可能会很困难。维持执法现状可以避免这个问题。</p>
<p>精神航空的崩溃使拜登的反垄断政策受到全国的审视。即使是一位在上任白宫担任高级官员的老政治活动家也表示，是时候 “诚实评估……阻止捷蓝与精神航空合并是否是正确的决定。”</p>
<p>将这一评估付诸实践的最佳方式是结束仍在法律上的新布兰代斯主义诉讼。是时候恢复反垄断执法的可预测和稳定标准。</p>
<p>阿尔登·阿博特是乔治梅森大学梅卡图斯中心的高级研究员。他曾担任联邦贸易委员会的总法律顾问，担任该机构的首席法律官。</p>

捷蓝航空

SAVEQ

标普交通运输 ETF - SPDR

道琼斯运输类股平均指数 ETF - iShares

全球航空业 ETF - U.S. Global

<p>精神航空公司已永久关闭，这减少了航空旅行行业的竞争，可能导致票价上涨。这一崩溃突显了 “新反垄断” 运动的失败，该运动反对合并，即使这些合并可能对消费者有利。拜登政府阻止与捷蓝航空的合并，原本是为了拯救精神航空，最终却导致了其破产。这一情况强调了需要回归以消费者福利为中心的反垄断政策</p>

<p>Spirit Airlines has permanently closed its doors, and that spells trouble for the air travel industry. The loss of one of the country’s premiere budget carriers will mean less competition among airlines — and likely higher airfares.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>精神航空公司已经永久关闭，这对航空旅行行业来说是个坏消息。失去这一国家顶尖的低成本航空公司将意味着航空公司之间的竞争减少——并可能导致机票价格上涨。</p>
</div><p>But there is one silver lining that could come out of Spirit’s unfortunate demise: It’s the perfect opportunity for antitrust regulators at both the federal and state levels to close the book on the Neo-Brandeisian movement — commonly referred to as “New Antitrust” — that has grown in popularity over the last five years.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>但精神航空的不幸倒闭可能带来一个积极的转机：这是联邦和州级反垄断监管机构结束新布兰代斯主义运动的绝佳机会——这一运动在过去五年中越来越受欢迎，通常被称为 “新反垄断”。</p>
</div><p>This movement seeks to shift antitrust policy away from its longstanding focus on protecting consumers from anti-competitive practices. In its place, proponents advocate a framework centered on policing market structure itself, embracing a “big is bad” philosophy that targets large companies for their size and influence — even when those companies are lowering prices and benefiting consumers.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这一运动试图将反垄断政策的重点从长期以来保护消费者免受反竞争行为的关注转移开。取而代之的是，倡导者主张一个以市场结构本身为中心的框架，接受 “大就是坏” 的理念，针对大型公司及其影响力——即使这些公司正在降低价格并使消费者受益。</p>
</div><p>The downfall of Spirit Airlines demonstrates what many legal and economic experts have warned for years: stopping mergers or punishing scale simply for its own sake does not help consumers. In this case, it did precisely the opposite.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>精神航空的倒闭证明了许多法律和经济专家多年来的警告：仅仅因为规模而阻止合并或惩罚规模并不能帮助消费者。在这种情况下，结果恰恰相反。</p>
</div><p>Conservatives have rightly blamed the Biden administration for letting Spirit Airlines fail. Under the oversight of Attorney General Merrick Garland, and with the blessing of Department of Transportation head Pete Buttigieg, the Department of Justice, joined by the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of New York, sued to stop a pending merger in 2023 between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>保守派正确地指责拜登政府让精神航空公司破产。在总检察长梅里克·加兰的监督下，在交通部部长皮特·布蒂吉格的支持下，司法部与哥伦比亚特区、马萨诸塞州和纽约州联合起诉，试图阻止 2023 年精神航空与捷蓝航空的合并。</p>
</div><p>Not only would the merger have saved Spirit and its 17,000 employees, it would have created a new, globally scaled competitor to more expensive carriers like Delta and United. Spirit already had a proven record of lowering prices across the airline sector thanks to its budget fares. A merger with the much larger JetBlue would have only proliferated this effect.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这项合并不仅会拯救精神航空及其 17,000 名员工，还会创造一个新的、全球规模的竞争者，以对抗像达美和联合航空这样的高价航空公司。精神航空已经证明能够通过其低价票价降低航空行业的价格。与规模更大的捷蓝航空的合并只会进一步扩大这一效果。</p>
</div><p>But the Biden administration was unconvinced. “JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit would eliminate the ‘Spirit Effect,’ where Spirit’s presence in a market forces other air carriers, including JetBlue, to lower their fares,” their lawsuit alleged.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>但拜登政府并不信服。他们的诉讼声称：“捷蓝收购精神航空将消除 ‘精神效应’，即精神航空在市场上的存在迫使其他航空公司，包括捷蓝，降低票价。”</p>
</div><p>Not only was this wrong, but the alternative was actually to eliminate Spirit itself, not just the “Spirit Effect.” The airline wouldn’t survive without a larger company willing to inject some cash.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>这不仅是错误的，替代方案实际上是消除精神航空本身，而不仅仅是 “精神效应”。没有一家愿意注入资金的大公司，航空公司将无法生存。</p>
</div><p>Unfortunately, the Justice Department and its allied state coalition managed to convince a federal judge to rule in their favor, killing the merger. A year and a half later, Spirit finally ran out of runway and filed for bankruptcy.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>不幸的是，司法部及其盟友州联盟成功说服一名联邦法官作出有利于他们的裁决，阻止了合并。一年半后，精神航空终于耗尽了资金，申请破产。</p>
</div><p>Poor antitrust policy bore responsibility for the collapse of this business. Where antitrust policy was guided for 40 years by the consumer welfare standard — under which the government only intervened if a merger or contract would directly harm the consumer — the regulators in charge decided to take a more ideological approach. They replaced the consumer welfare standard with a general aversion to corporate consolidation, even in cases where consolidation was the best result, as with Spirit.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>糟糕的反垄断政策导致了这家企业的崩溃。在过去 40 年中，反垄断政策是以消费者福利标准为指导——在这一标准下，政府仅在合并或合同直接伤害消费者时才会干预——负责监管的机构决定采取更意识形态的方式。他们用对企业合并的一般厌恶取代了消费者福利标准，即使在合并是最佳结果的情况下，比如精神航空。</p>
</div><p>Today, Spirit may be gone, but the Trump administration can still learn the lesson of its ordeal. For the ghost of Neo-Brandeisianism continues to haunt federal policy.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>今天，精神航空可能已经消失，但特朗普政府仍然可以从其经历中吸取教训。新布兰代斯主义的幽灵仍然在联邦政策中徘徊。</p>
</div><p>In 2024, President Trump replaced Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, the nation’s principal advocate for Neo-Brandesianism, with Andrew Ferguson, who promised to stop “picking winners and losers” and assured businesses that the commission will stay out of the way of mergers that won’t hurt Americans economically.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>在 2024 年，特朗普总统将联邦贸易委员会主席莉娜·汗（新布兰代斯主义的主要倡导者）替换为安德鲁·弗格森，后者承诺停止 “挑选赢家和输家”，并向企业保证委员会将不干预不会对美国经济造成伤害的合并。</p>
</div><p>As if to reassure businesses, Ferguson quickly ended a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against Pepsi over its offer of bulk pricing deals to businesses that could afford to purchase in bulk. Neo-Brandeisians opposed the practice because only larger companies can typically purchase at that scale. But in reality, those discounts help lower costs throughout the supply chain and ultimately reduce prices at the checkout counter.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>为了向企业保证，弗格森迅速结束了联邦贸易委员会对百事可乐的诉讼，后者因向能够批量购买的企业提供批发定价交易而受到指控。新布兰代斯主义者反对这一做法，因为通常只有大型公司才能以这种规模进行采购。但实际上，这些折扣有助于降低整个供应链的成本，并最终降低结账时的价格。</p>
</div><p>It seemed the Federal Trade Commission was ready to move on from the Neo-Brandeisian legacy. Yet even today, there are still a number of such cases that remain open.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>联邦贸易委员会似乎准备摆脱新布兰代斯主义的遗产。然而，即使在今天，仍然有许多此类案件尚未解决。</p>
</div><p>Although the commission ended the Pepsi lawsuit, it has so far left open similar actions. One is against Southern Glazer’s, the country’s largest liquor distributor. The lawsuit, against which Ferguson dissented when it was first brought forward, likewise accuses Southern Glazer’s of price discrimination for lowering its prices at big-box stores, even though these discounts push down consumer prices at a time of high inflation.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>尽管委员会结束了对百事可乐的诉讼，但迄今为止仍然保留了类似的行动。其中一起是针对南方格拉泽（Southern Glazer's），该公司是美国最大的酒类分销商。针对南方格拉泽的诉讼，弗格森在最初提出时表示反对，同样指控南方格拉泽在大型商店降低价格的价格歧视，尽管这些折扣在高通胀时期降低了消费者价格。</p>
</div><p>Many states are also still fighting the merger of telecommunications companies HPE and Juniper. Antitrust experts have repeatedly pointed out that the deal would not even trigger the minimum market share structural presumption historically needed to open an antitrust merger investigation. The U.S. intelligence community has also stated that the merger is important for national security.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>许多州仍在与电信公司 HPE 和 Juniper 的合并作斗争。反垄断专家反复指出，这笔交易甚至不会触发历史上开启反垄断合并调查所需的最低市场份额结构假设。美国情报界也表示，这笔合并对国家安全至关重要。</p>
</div><p>The antitrust enforcers who have taken over for Neo-Brandeisian advocates admittedly have a tall task in front of them. It may be difficult to explain to skeptical journalists that dropping an antitrust lawsuit is not an unfair favor for Big Business but a benefit for American consumers. Maintaining the enforcement status quo avoids this problem.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>接替新布兰代斯主义倡导者的反垄断执法者无疑面临艰巨的任务。向持怀疑态度的记者解释，撤回反垄断诉讼并不是对大企业的不公平偏袒，而是对美国消费者的利益，可能会很困难。维持执法现状可以避免这个问题。</p>
</div><p>Spirit Airlines’s collapse has exposed the Biden antitrust policy to national scrutiny. Even a longtime political operative who served as a senior official in the last White House says it is time to “honestly assess whether … stopping the JetBlue merger with Spirit Airlines was the right call.”</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>精神航空的崩溃使拜登的反垄断政策受到全国的审视。即使是一位在上任白宫担任高级官员的老政治活动家也表示，是时候 “诚实评估……阻止捷蓝与精神航空合并是否是正确的决定。”</p>
</div><p>The best way to put that assessment into practice is to end the remaining Neo-Brandeisian suits that remain on the books. It is time to restore a predictable and stable standard to antitrust enforcement.</p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>将这一评估付诸实践的最佳方式是结束仍在法律上的新布兰代斯主义诉讼。是时候恢复反垄断执法的可预测和稳定标准。</p>
</div><p><em>Alden Abbott is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He previously served as general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission, acting as the agency’s chief legal officer.</em></p>
<div class="lb-trans"><p>阿尔登·阿博特是乔治梅森大学梅卡图斯中心的高级研究员。他曾担任联邦贸易委员会的总法律顾问，担任该机构的首席法律官。</p>
</div>

精神航空公司的崩溃表明 “新反垄断” 运动未能成功