Today antitrust legislation shapes the coverage of virtually each huge corporation, irrespective of the place founded. yet this wasn't continually the case. ahead of international struggle II, the legislation of such a lot commercial international locations tolerated or even inspired cartels, while American statutes banned them. within the wake of worldwide conflict II, the USA committed significant assets to development a liberal financial order, which Washington believed used to be essential to conserving not just prosperity but additionally peace after the warfare. Antitrust was once a cornerstone of that coverage. This attention-grabbing booklet exhibits how the USA sought to impose—and with what results—its antitrust coverage on different international locations, specially in Europe and Japan.

Wyatt Wells chronicles how the assault on cartels and monopoly out of the country affected every little thing from power coverage and alternate negotiations to the career of Germany and Japan. He indicates how a small crew of zealots led through Thurman Arnold, who grew to become head of the Justice Department's Antitrust department in 1938, precise cartels and massive businesses through the global: IG Farben of Germany, Mitsui and Mitsubishi of Japan, Imperial Chemical Industries of england, Philips of the Netherlands, DuPont and common electrical of the us, and extra. Wells brilliantly exhibits how hence, the architects of the postwar economy—notably Lucius Clay, John McCloy, William Clayton, Jean Monnet, and Ludwig Erhard—uncoupled political ideology from antitrust coverage, remodeling Arnold's attempt right into a capacity to advertise company potency and inspire competition.