A Kansas City Southern Railway locomotive stands idle on a rural stretch of railroad track.
Allen J.M. Smith / Shutterstock
Throughout history, antitrust laws have been utilized to protect the process of competition to benefit consumers, making sure there are strong incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up. This is not the case, however, with the looming acquisition of the American-owned Kansas City Southern (KCS) railroad by Canadian Pacific (CP), a foreign-owned company.
If you haven’t heard of this development, then it’s for good reason. While the Biden administration claims that it is concerned about a lack of competition in the rail sector, they are seemingly allowing the potential acquisition to proceed without the same widespread scrutiny other large mergers have triggered. It also appears as if…