Daniel Gross has an interesting MoneyBox article in Slate (link here) on how the normally merger friendly Bush DOJ Antitrust Division and the FTC have decided that letting Whole Foods merge with Wild Oats (total merger value $670 million) would seriously undermine competition in the high end retail food industry.

Of course, as Gross notes:

We're in the midst of a merger mania, and the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's antitrust division the agencies tasked with assuring that mergers don't harm consumers by reducing competition have approved almost every deal. If the nation's largest hog producer buys the second-largest hog producer? OK. Telecommunications giants SBC and AT&T want to merge? No problem. Giant supermarket company Albertson's and giant supermarket company SuperValu get together? You got it.

Coming up with hard evidence that decisions like this are politically motivated is obviously difficult, but Gross makes a compelling case for it. Check it out.