Why I’m Resigning as an FTC Commissioner | Hacker News Reader

Why I’m Resigning as an FTC Commissioner

wsj.com

13 pointsmfiguiere8 comments

> Since Ms. Khan’s confirmation in 2021, my staff and I have spent countless hours seeking to uncover her abuses of government power.

Is that an FTC commissioner’s role ?

> Is that an FTC commissioner’s role ?

They are political appointees, I believe. So ask the party bosses?

Ironically amusing that Wilson chooses to announce her impending resignation from behind the WSJ's paywall rather than doing so on the public record first and writing op-eds afterward.

Anyway, it's possible this is a strategic response to the Biden administration's re-nomination of (Democratic) Cmmr. Rebecca Slaughter yesterday.

Here is some reasonably even-handed context on the opposing philosophical views at the FTC: https://prospect.org/economy/dont-say-new-brandeisians-reply...

This extremely opinionated thread is nevertheless a useful collection of contested issues during Wilson's tenure (but I would not advise relying on the twitter user's summaries of those issues): https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/162555187509223014...

Meta has been seeking the recusal of Lina Khan since summer 2021, arguing that her prior advocacy of antitrust action against Meta (as opinion, rather than in service of a competitor) disqualifies her from overseeing the case. Wilson also argues in this op-ed that Khan cannot be an objective judge of the case, but given that the FTC is suing Meta in federal court, it's not clear whether jurisprudential standards should apply here.

That first citation was partly written by Hal Singer. Singer was one of the key witnesses (ie economists) in the recent Within case and the courts basically rejected his theories outright. When I’ve got more time tomorrow I’ll post some of the other material that this piece doesn’t cite. The data isn’t as clean as this piece would suggest. In short, there is a big debate in economics about all of the items that they cite.

I would also look into this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/13/ftc-lin.... I often disagree with Commissioner Wilson but she has a point. The entire agency has shifted due to Chair Khan.

Hmm. A commissioner appointed by Trump finds everything objectionable and makes outlandish claims when she can't emasculate the FTC? That might very well surprise no one.

I keep seeing people post three asterisks. What does it mean or why are people doing it?

I don't know what you are referring to. If you're talking about the ellipses ('...') at the end of the URLs, HN truncates long URLs for display automatically, but doesn't alter the destination.

It's amusing that the 2nd link is over the count limit by one character, ha.

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