Clarifications and Gratitude

Certain things in this book plainly require clarification to avoid misunderstanding. In fact, I think this little discussion was among three people who mostly agree with each other, except that the reviewers may not have known it because I failed to explain myself well enough. Because I didn't, they mostly didn't discuss what I always intended to be the book's real contribution and its most interesting material.

I start out in Part I by trying to restate what I see as the problem that is the book's only immediate concern. That restatement is a first draft for how I will try to clarify it in the book. Part II then reacts to the two critiques individually. They happen to be full of useful points from which this book will benefit, even beyond the clarification of its purpose. Even their specific doctrinal points are apposite in that I do happen to set out some thoughts of a doctrinal nature. (I do that for the practical reason that if I didn't, then this pretty down-beat book could be misunderstood as me arguing that antitrust is hopeless or bad.) Part III briefly concludes by saying what I think really was at the heart of these two reviews, though they may seem quite different.