Ludwig Erhard

Erhard's competition policy acquired a standing enforcer when the Bundeskartellamt began work in 1958 under the new competition law. Eberhard Günther and the agency's officials built the organisation that could examine cartels and market power. This is an especially useful choice for a reader who associates institution-building mainly with welfare provision: a market economy also depends on public capacity, legal rules and enforcement that outlast a minister.