A “bottlenecker” is anyone who uses government power to limit competition thereby reaping monopoly profits and other benefits.  Bottleneckers work with politicians to constrict competition, entrepreneurial innovation and opportunity; they limit consumer choice; they drive up consumer prices; and they support politicians who willingly overstep the constitutional limits of their powers to create, maintain and expand these anticompetitive bottlenecks. 

The Institute for Justice’s new book, Bottleneckers: Gaming the Government for Power and Private Profit, provides a rich history and well-researched examples of bottleneckers in one occupation after another.  Among the trades documented in the book are:  alcohol distributors (who gave bottleneckers their name), casket cartels, cosmetologists, interior designers, tour guides, taxicabs and New York City’s dollar-vans, street vendors, and opinion columnists and bloggers, each of which has been the focus of bottleneckers bent on using government force to keep others out.  Bottleneckers also points the way to positive reforms.

Join Right on Crime and Texas Public Policy Foundation as we host Dick Carpenter, director of strategic research for the Institute for Justice and author of Bottleneckers, for a book discussion and signing.

Complimentary lunch will be served at this event.
For a map of downtown Austin parking, please click here.