Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: The FTC Makes Merger Arb More Fun

Merger arb v. Lina Khan

One idea that you sometimes hear is that, when the broad stock market steadily goes up each year, that is bad for investment managers. If the S&P 500 index just goes up 15% per year, then anyone can do great by buying an index fund, and the benefits of picking the best stocks are lower. Highly paid active managers distinguish themselves more in choppy markets, where picking the right stocks is distinctly more valuable than picking the wrong ones.

Similarly you could imagine an antitrust enforcement regime in which the US Federal Trade Commission almost ...