Matt Stoller Profile picture
Jul 29, 2020 17 tweets 10 min read Read on X
The #bigtechbarons hearing is starting.
Key point. This hearing is not just a one-off, it is *part* of an investigation. @davidcicilline says they have millions of documents from both the companies as well over a hundred competitors. #bigtechbarons
@davidcicilline notes commonalities of #bigtechbarons:

(1) They each are bottlenecks
(2) They each engage in surveillance
This is amazing. @davidcicilline posits that this is a battle between Monopoly power and democracy. #BigTechBarons #BigTechHearing
"Our founders would not bow before a king, we should not bow before the emperors of online commerce." - @davidcicilline #bigtechhearing #bigtechbarons
Now @JimPressOffice is giving the GOP opening statement. So far it's a reasonable statement, talking about dominance, making the point that "big is not bad." Serious statement discussing data and market structure. Bipartisan, this is good. #BigTechHearing
"I share the concern that market dominance is rife for abuse." - @JimPressOffice #BigTechHearing
This is the stock price of #bigtechbarons since this investigation began. Trillions of dollars in an increase of market capitalization. #BigTechHearing Image
Now @RepJerryNadler starts with citing Brandeis. #BigTechHearing

Everyone so far uses the word 'dominance.'
Good historical lesson from @RepJerryNadler. So far Sensenbrenner, Cicilline, and Nadler are bringing seriousness to this hearing. #BigTechBarons #BigTechHearing
Love @RepJerryNadler bringing Emanuel Celler and his anti-monopoly subcommittee into the conversation. #BigTechBarons

This is amazing, just like the hearings I read when I researched Goliath.
Time for @Jim_Jordan. "Big tech is out to get conservatives." Talking about the World Health Organization and China, Amazon banning Trump and Twitch. #bigtechbarons

So far hearing nothing about monopoly or competition.🤔🤔🤔
What's so irritating about @Jim_Jordan is that everything he's talking about is *a monopoly problem* but he's here to defend monopoly and then harangue the monopolists for not being nicer to what *he thinks.* #BigTechHearing #BigTechBarons
It's kind of funny that @Jim_Jordan doesn't get to the defense of #BigTechBarons because it just doesn't fit in his haranguing of #bigtech for conservative bias. Jordan is now being a clown and being disruptive. @davidcicilline shuts him down hard.
It's so great that @davidcicilline made it 100% clear that this hearing is serious and that you don't fuck with him. #BigTechBarons
Jeff Bezos is now up talking up how awesome his Mom and Dad are. #BigTechBarons
"It is still Day One for this country." - Jeff Bezos

That's very much a 'what is good for General Motors is good for America' answer.

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More from @matthewstoller

Jun 30
1. There are four parts to the Democratic Party, and only one matters right now. There are media Dems, policy Dems, donor Dems, and regular Democrats. Only the regulator Democrats matter. Who are they? They are the electeds, unions, black preachers - those who deal with voters.
2. Each has their role. Media Dems communicate the message. That's the NYT and Washington Post, MSNBC, black radio, etc. Most deny they are partisan but sure Jan and all that. They want Biden to step down.
3. Policy Dems think about governing. That's progressive think tanks, law firms, corporate lobbyists. Donor Dems think about money and access. That's everyone from billionaires in Silicon Valley to 'ladies who lunch.'
Read 10 tweets
Jun 27
1. Let's talk economic termites, the companies you don't notice, but behind the scenes overcharge you in ways you don't see. Today we're going over CDK Global, a software company that raises the price of cars. thebignewsletter.com/p/economic-ter…
2. CDK Software is business software for auto dealers, managing service, parts and inventory, vehicle financing, accounting, payroll, insurance information, customer information, etc. 15,000 auto dealers use it nationwide. thebignewsletter.com/p/a-supreme-co…
3. Though it's business software, the price gets added to the cost of your car. A small dealership pays $150,000 per year, mid-size dealership groups (5 to 10 stores) pays $1,500,000 or more per year, and large dealerships pays $5,000,000 per year.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Read 23 tweets
Jun 11
"We are also proposing a ban on lenders repossessing wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and other medical devices."

That's good wait wtf that's a thing?!?
"It is perhaps immoral to repossess a prosthetic limb but it's not the state's role to prohibit a private equity fund from doing so." - former Senator Pat Toomey, probably
"I'm gonna need that leg back." - Tim Geithner's Warburg Pincus portfolio firm, probably
Read 4 tweets
May 15
The spread of Walmart in the 1980s shattered Southern politics, that’s *purely* a trade and antitrust story. The civil rights movement is not why the South went to the right.

Also West Virginia was never Republican. The story of civil rights delivering the south to the right makes no sense!
The myth of modern liberalism is rooted in southerners being racist instead of Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy deregulating airlines and trucking to crush labor. It’s just rich kid story time.
Obviously civil rights broke the Jim Crow machines and that put the South in play for a whole suite of new interests, and flipped a bunch of whites to the GOP. But that just made the region competitive.
Read 13 tweets
May 1
Boeing whistleblowers keep suddenly dying. Image
Image
Private equity giant Apollo has announced a new line of business where the firm takes out life insurance policies on Boeing whistleblowers.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 24
Can we admit Obamacare was a disaster and Obama was a bad President yet? Or are we still pretending that Biden is the problem because he’s not cool? time.com/6279937/us-hea…
If the Rs has an alternative beyond ‘feed sick people into a woodchipper’ they would have implemented it already.
Also the statement ‘we need universal health care’ is answering the wrong question. We need to stop equating health insurance with health care.
Read 6 tweets

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