Re: NYC mayor's race. I took a quick look at the top four candidate's web sites to see how they see small business from an anti-monopoly lens. They all have 'get rid of regulations' and 'provide capital to struggling small businesses'' pro forma box checking.
Kathryn Garcia wants to retain the restaurant fee delivery cap on Uber, et al. She also has an interesting proposal on helping to live-stream theater. And she discusses the need to break from cable monopolies for universal broadband. kgfornyc.com/policy/recover…
Eric Adams wants to retain the restaurant fee delivery cap on Uber, et al. He also wants to tax online services, like streaming, and use the money to cut taxes on local businesses who are disadvantages by tech giants. ericadams2021.com/erics-economic…
Andrew Yang is weird/bold. Key is a vacancy tax, which would radically cut rent in a good way. Wants a public option against Amazon. Wants to keep the restaurant delivery fee cap, but help build predatory business models like ghost kitchens. yangforny.com/policies/relie…
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…
Amazon's Ryan McCrate says Amazon supports interoperability. "We will always work backwards from what works for our customers, and that includes interoperability."
Sonos's Eddie Lazarus says interoperability as it is currently implemented is "just an on-ramp to the Amazon system."
Republicans Mike Lee and Chuck Grassley just introduced a bill to dramatically weaken antitrust law. His bill *gets rid* of FTC antitrust authority. He would also codify the failed consumer welfare standard that ends up consolidating power.
Lee and Grassley's bill would gut private antitrust enforcement by repealing Hanover Shoe, a decision that made it harder for monopolists to escape liability for overcharging customers. c-span.org/video/?512534-…
Lee is putting forward his antitrust legislation under the guise that it will strengthen antitrust law, though its actual effect will be to empower monopolists. I think we can assume that all legislative efforts going forward will be framed that way.
While the Atlantic/MSNBC/CNN niche is real, there's also a deep hunger for the kind of cross-partisan anti-corporate civil discourse of @esaagar and @krystalball. They actually explain power.
The hunger for cross-partisan explanatory journalism goes far beyond Breaking Points, of course. Louis Rossmann and @MKBHD, who seem apolitical but are actually getting into really deep politics, are doing well because there is such a popular hunger.
This video from @MKBHD is probably one of the most extraordinary explanations of Apple's use of market power put out in the last five years and it has millions of views. People want to know why the world is the way it is!
The Clarence Thomas fallout continues. The Republican Ohio Attorney General just filed a fascinating complaint against Google. The AG is asking Google to be declared a common carrier and for the search results to be required to be done in a neutral manner. ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Briefing…
I wrote up Thomas's important statement a few months ago. The right is rapidly changing on big tech, substantively. Not everyone is rejecting libertarianism. But it's happening. mattstoller.substack.com/p/why-is-clare…
The Ivy League really is a cartel, and not just in a metaphorical sense. The Justice Department investigated them for price-fixing in financial aid over the course of FOUR DECADES. nytimes.com/1991/05/23/us/…
23 Northeastern universities held an annual meeting in which they “discussed the financial-aid applications of 10,000 students who had been accepted to more than one institution in the group." The attorney general called them a “collegiate cartel.”