Thread by @matthewstoller

I thought about the explosive news of Lina Khan becoming FTC Chair, and wrote up what it means for our politics. Why did Biden pick someone to lead an antitrust revolution? mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-antitrus…

Khan is something rare in progressive politics, someone with academic credentials and mastery over a dense technical subject, but also connected with a broad-based populist social movement that crosses partisan lines. mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-antitrus…

I've talked to a lot of people in business, both Republicans and Democrats, and they really respect Khan. It's because, I think, she got her training not as a lawyer but as a business journalist talking to people facing monopoly. Here's an example. ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why…

For Halloween in 2013, Khan talked to candy makers and wrote up the story of how candy used to be produced locally, until Hershey's, Nestle, and Mars consolidated the industry with a low cost of capital and kickbacks to retailers. ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why…

While a journalist Khan looked at concentrated power across the economy, writing about airlines, banks and commodity trading, meatpackers, seeds and chemicals, and business formation in general. mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-antitrus…

As @RrjohnR has noted, the anti-monopoly movement of 1880s to the 1900s was formed and centered by business journalists, notably Henry Lloyd Demarest in the 1880s. theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

Journalists bring a special training, which is, they talk to people and learn how to tell a story about the economy. While at law school, Khan used her experience and legal training to trace the roots of Amazon's power to changes in antitrust law. yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-a…

Khan served as the lead researcher of big tech in the @davidcicilline antitrust subcommittee’s groundbreaking investigation, which reoriented tech policy globally. Here's Brookings, the establishment's establishment, on this work.
brookings.edu/blog/techtank/…

Joe Biden took a risk in appointing her to the FTC, challenging monopolists and the antitrust. And she didn't play games during her nomination hearing, noting “potential criminal activity” by big tech firms.🔥🔥🔥 mattstoller.substack.com/p/ftc-nominee-…

Antitrust establishment dean Herb Hovenkamp pronounced her nomination dead, saying such a "radical" probably wouldn't have the votes to get confirmed. "Putting more extremists on the commission is not the way to do better." mattstoller.substack.com/p/antitrust-es…

But Republicans showed good faith to Biden in this case, and 22 of them crossed the aisle to vote for Khan's confirmation. And the right-wing press has been covering her skepticism towards big tech clearly.

Meanwhile, CNBC analysts were concerned about what the choice of Khan means for stocks.

That Wall Street is noticing Khan's pick is the big story. The FTC has a crisis of legitimacy. mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-antitrus…

For decades, we have offshored and consolidated, as the Dems and GOP argue over social questions. But now, Biden, Senate Dems and GOP, and Khan are saying, enough. Will it work? Hopefully. It certainly points a way towards a different politics. mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-antitrus…