Why don't we have cheap rapid covid tests? Tim Stenzel, the FDA employee in charge of approving them, approved two firms to make them. He had worked at both. Then he blocked additional ones from coming on the market. propublica.org/article/heres-…
FDA official Tim Stenzel explicitly advocated a rapid covid testing monopoly in his approach. Why? Efficiency!

Except that Europe has 39 tests and they are cheap and everywhere. We have expensive tests and they are in shortage.
This story about rapid covid testing came from my organization @econliberties. We wrote a letter two months ago asking why Stenzel is allowed to make these kinds of decisions. At this point the FDA needs radical reform to end its pro-monopoly posture. documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
"On an earnings call in October, Abbott CEO Robert Ford said the company anticipated dropping its price to maintain its market share, but wouldn’t if competition didn’t make it necessary." propublica.org/article/heres-…
What I find fascinating is all the bullshit excuses for why we lack tests. 'Oh it's so complex' by public health nerds and corporate lobbyists, instead of 'there's a bureaucrat at the FDA who fucked up but he's in the club so he's cool.' propublica.org/article/heres-…
Anyway, there's lots of excellent reporting by @lpolgreen and @ericuman on the severe dysfunction at the FDA. propublica.org/article/heres-…
Here's a picture of mustached villain Tim Stenzel, the FDA official responsible for the high cost and lack of supply for rapid Covid tests.

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More from @matthewstoller

3 Nov
Liberals don't get it. The Pandemic and Covid are different things. Covid is a disease. The Pandemic is a politically constructed determination. We are not in a 'flu pandemic' because we have decided politically that the flu is something we have to deal with in a normal society.
Covid makes you sick. The Pandemic is a rationale for making lots of public policy decisions about who can travel, work, get educated, sell medicine, and so forth. Covid can decline as The Pandemic continues, and vice versa.
Biden has not handled the Pandemic well because he has empowered media hungry bureaucrats like Fauci to make *political choices* when the country has decided it prefers normalcy to endless panic and control.
Read 4 tweets
2 Nov
I have views on what Democrats are doing wrong politically, but the basic issue is that we are out of touch. I've never seen such wildly pro-labor sentiment in America in in my lifetime, but the Democratic governing class has no connection to the working class.
When Democrats admire a working class icon as much as they admire Anthony Fauci, they will no longer be out of touch. Screw that. When Democrats can *name* a working class icon...
Structurally the Democrats rely for their political machinery on nonprofits, and that's mostly untethered from any feedback loop except what foundation and corporate executives think. I don't really know how to fix any of this.
Read 10 tweets
2 Nov
A lot of the opposition to stronger antitrust enforcement is based on the idiotic notion that most business leaders know what they are doing when they try to monopolize a new area.
It's like let's say that antitrust enforcers had won the case against the AT&T-Time Warner merger. What would have happened is that DOJ would have saved AT&T shareholders and Time Warner employees from an immensely stupid deal.
If we had enforced predatory pricing law Softbank would not have been able to waste billions of dollars of Saudi money on WeWork. I'm not saying that's the point of the law, but the idea that too much enforcement is inefficient is likely the opposite of the truth.
Read 4 tweets
2 Nov
When Simon & Schuster announced that it was up for sale in March 2020, its CEO wrote to one of its best- selling authors: “I’m pretty sure that the Department of Justice wouldn’t allow Penguin Random House to buy us, but that’s assuming we still have a Department of Justice.” 🤣
Spicy complaint form DOJ against Penguin/Random House buying Simon and Schuster. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
It is interesting that this DOJ challenge is going after a merger that would reduce the market from 5 to 4 competitors.
Read 4 tweets
1 Nov
The Biden administration pushed to allow the sale of over the counter hearing aids. The Medicare hearing expansion would ban Medicare from paying for over the counter hearing aids. 🤔mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
This kind of pro-monopoly bullshit is why I'm tired of progressive politics. 'We need to expand coverage of hearing in Medicare' sounds awesome but then you realize it's about helping monopoly providers of overpriced hearing aids by excluding competitors. mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
It's quite possible to fix the legislation so that the hearing aid cartel can't effectively undo what the Biden executive order just did re: hearing aids. mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
Read 4 tweets
29 Oct
1. For at least five years, Facebook has been mired in significant public scandal. But Mark Zuckerberg simply doesn't care. Why? The answer is, he knows it doesn't matter, because the rule of law doesn't apply to the powerful. mattstoller.substack.com/p/enough-is-en…
2. Zuckerberg has heard intense criticism since he started Facebook at Harvard. And while criticism would seem shameful to a normal person, to him, the scandals, far from a problem, are why he won. He is worth $100 billion bc he grabbed whatever he could, and others didn't.
3. The legal problems, the settlements for deception with the Federal Trade Commission, the $5B fine for violating it, foreign investigations, and the antitrust suit... to him it's noise. He's a builder, and builders build. mattstoller.substack.com/p/enough-is-en…
Read 22 tweets

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