mr. baer: that was the easy part. now the tough questions. thank you for those thoughtful remarks and emphasis on economic liberty, which is really bottom line what the f.t.c. is and should be all about. i want to make sure i welcome you back to brookings and join in camille's graduate. did you a wonderful overview of what you have accomplished and in a little less than four years. but why don't we start at the beginning, a very good place to start. in early 2021 president biden nominated you to the commission, you were confirmed in june, a few months later. by comparison it took me 13 months to get confirmed. in june on the day you were confirmed by the senate, the press designate -- the president designated you as chair. surprised by some. applauded by many and seismic shock to the business community and chamber of commerce. what i would like to do is take you back to those, that first year. you obviously have thought about what you would do. you had come to the office, you enter the chair's

mr. baer: thank you for that. the size of the agency when you first started was probably just a little more than half of what it was as you unkindly reminded the audience when i started there 50 years ago. let me turn to your discussion about mergers. you came in based on some of your writings and a real commitment to reinvigorating merger enforcement addressing labor market issues something largely addressed in prior administrations. you mentioned administrations of competitors, roll up by private equity and ears. you promised to pay as you said were closer attention to remedies and what works and what doesn't and to avoid having the agency be the regulator after a merger is consummated. i think you delivered on that. you also said you were going to work hard to update the merger guidelines and hart scott rodino which is the merger reporting requirements a form that had not been updated since about 1979. early on you had a couple of losses in merger challenges, but -- and the critics pounced

mr. baer: great. from the "washington post" an opinion piece was written that talked generally about how little of what biden has done is going to survive. she took on antitrust. i will read you a short summary but she said and of the courts largely forwarded the battles against big tech and its commendable band on worker unanimous compete. as for the broader agenda of making antitrust enforcement less focused on low consumer prices and more on goals and administration officials have little to show to-wit the fate of any ongoing tech cases will soon be in the hands of the trump administration boss top advisors include technique billionaires. i believe you addressed some of there yesterday on cnbc. but give us your reaction. comm'r khan: look, it is important to have your analysis correspond to the facts and what has happened in the courts and i rattled off dozens of instances where the courts full my vindicated what the agencies have been doing. the d.o.j. won a major monopolization case again