Washington is fueling a 'war on business' as it cracks down on mergers and acquisitions, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says

• The US government is waging a "war on business" with its new rules on mergers and acquisitions, Larry Summers said.
• The 13 new guidelines are a "substantial risk" and problematic, the former Treasury Secretary said.

The Biden administration on Wednesday intensified its crackdown on corporate mergers and acquisitions by releasing a raft of rules aimed to protect Americans from monopoly power in what is "like a war on business", former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said.

"These guidelines — by moving away from an emphasis on lower prices for consumers to broader abstractions — are a substantial risk," the former Harvard professor told Bloomberg.

"I wish that this stepping back and offering merger guidelines had been taken as an opportunity to rationalize the policy and step back, rather than to double down on what sometimes seems like a war on business," Summers said, adding that he's disappointed with the new rules.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission unveiled 13 fresh guidelines on mergers and acquisitions in a bid to block cases of monopoly power and promote competitive markets.

"Competitive markets and economic opportunity go hand in hand. Today, we are issuing draft guidelines that are faithful to the law, which prevents mergers that threaten competition or tend to create monopolies," assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Antitrust Division said.

The tougher rules come after several failed efforts to stop mergers, including Microsoft's buyout of Activision Blizzard.

"Right now, where I think where you're moving away from low consumer prices as a standard, you're mostly moving into problematic territory," Summers said. "There's been a lot of that in the last several years, and it sure seems like they're pushing forward harder, rather than backing off," he added.