Thread by @doctorow

The @AntitrustInst report on the Trump administration's handling of antitrust makes for some really grim reading, but it's important stuff.

antitrustinstitute.org/wp-content/upl…

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Starting with Reagan, every president, R or D, has nerfed antitrust law to make it comport with the absurd fantasies of the Nixon co-conspirator Robert Bork, who said monopolies are only a problem when the raise prices in the short term (the "consumer welfare" standard").

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But the Trump administration's antitrust approach puts every other president's antitrust malpractice in the shade. @KarlBode's summary is really good on the highlights:

techdirt.com/articles/20200…

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For starters, the Trump admin's signature antitrust achievement - making incoherent noises about Big Tech - has come to less than nothing. In 2017/18, the DOJ's antitrust division opened ZERO investigations. It's the longest dry spell in division history.

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At the same time, Trump's DOJ nerfed the fines it assesses for monopolistic conduct, offering robber-barons a 45% discount on the (already gentle and loving) fines the Obama administration extracted from convicted corporate criminals.

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The Trump admin actually SWITCHED SIDES in the suit to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger and cheered on the T-Mobile-Sprint merger (once T-Mobile's CEO deleted his Trump-critical tweets and started renting rooms at Trump hotels).

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The Institute's report covers events BEFORE the pandemic crisis. Now that businesses are failing (and 94.5% of the "small business" PPP fund has been gobbled up by huge companies), you can expect waves and waves of mergers and acquisitions.

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This, at the moment when we're learning that monopoly ISPs can't be trusted to serve as our societal nervous system, and monopoly ecommerce platforms can't run safe logistics and warehousing, and monopoly videoconferencing platforms can't be trusted with our free expression.

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The only hope to salvage from this is to make antitrust an election issue in 2020. The crisis of monopoly capitalism has never been more visible and obvious and salient. There's never been a moment when more of us were suffering directly as a result of monopolization.

eof/