No images? Click here Welcome to The Corner. In this issue, we take note of President Biden’s placement of competition policy at the center of his economic policy in a speech on Bidenomics he gave last week.
Anita Jain In a major speech last week, President Joe Biden identified the fight against monopoly as one of the three main pillars of his economic policy, along with infrastructure investment and worker education and training. Noting that three quarters of U.S. industry has grown more concentrated under the misguided “trickle-down” economic policies of the last four decades, the President said, “That may have made things easier for big corporations, but for everybody else, it made it harder and more expensive. It got harder for small businesses to compete. It stifled innovation. It reduced wages for workers. And it made our supply chains more vulnerable.” He highlighted his administration’s reinvigoration of antitrust enforcement to address widespread corporate concentration, saying, “The cops are back on the beat enforcing antitrust laws.” Biden also noted how his administration has cracked down on non-compete agreements, which the Federal Trade Commission has proposed banning. Such agreements stifle competition for workers and reduce wages by preventing 30 million workers, many of them low-wage, from leaving their job to take a higher paying position. “It’s one thing to have non-compete agreements when you’re dealing with trade secrets,” Biden said. “It’s another thing when you’re doing the same thing of flipping a hamburger, and you’re going to get five cents more by walking across the street to a different place.” Open Markets Institute has long called for a ban on such clauses in employment contracts and spearheaded a petition, signed by other like-minded groups, that was sent to the FTC four years ago. The pivotal role competition policy currently plays within Bidenomics — the name given to the administration’s worker-centered policies — is the fruition of yearslong advocacy by Open Markets Institute, which commended the president for underscoring how reducing corporate concentration and antitrust enforcement helps build a fair economy. “We are particularly gratified to see how effectively the President communicated the role monopoly plays in driving up prices for consumers, driving down wages for workers, stifling opportunities for entrepreneurs, and the hollowing out of supply chains and the nation’s industrial base,” Open Markets’ policy director Phillip Longman said in a statement. “We are now further thrilled to see the President capitalize on the broad popular appeal of these policies by highlighting them in the White House’s political messaging, as we have previously urged him to do.” Biden’s remarks cap off a recent string of groundbreaking speeches by Cabinet members outlining a new vision for trade policy, one that prioritizes resilient supply chains and revitalizes U.S. manufacturing. One of these speeches was delivered by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai at a conference hosted by Open Markets Institute last month in which she underscored the break with the past, declaring, “Our focus has shifted from liberalization and the pursuit of efficiency and low costs to raising standards, building resiliency, driving sustainability, and fostering more inclusive prosperity at home and abroad.” Tai’s remarks built on a major speech in April by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who spoke about a new “Washington consensus” that supports building back U.S. manufacturing capacity and reducing dependence on foreign nations to boost national and economic security. Coming on the heels of these two talks, Biden’s remarks last week drive home his administration’s commitment to an economy that benefits workers and the middle class, not just the wealthy and large corporations.
The Open Markets Institute and Center for Journalism & Liberty are pleased to announce Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, has joined our team as the new director of the Center for Journalism & Liberty. As director of theCenter for Journalism & Liberty, Dr. Radsch will produce and oversee cutting-edge research into news media market structures and help design smart policy solutions to protect and bolster journalism’s financial and editorial independence. Her biography can be viewed here. 📝 WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO:
🔊 ANTI-MONOPOLY RISING:
We appreciate your readership. Please consider making a contribution to support the continued publication of this newsletter. 📈 VITAL STAT:97%Share of India’s 600 million smartphones that use Google’s Android mobile operating system. Google, fined by the Competition Commission of India for exploiting its dominant position, has recently challenged antitrust directives imposed on the company in the country’s Supreme Court. (Reuters) 📚 WHAT WE'RE READING:How Google Misled Advertisers in YouTube Ad Sales. A report by research firm Adalytics found that in the last three years about 80 percent of video ads Google sold to Fortune 500 brands to appear on premium YouTube content ended up on small third-party websites with no value to advertisers. The deception may have cheated media buyers out of billions of digital ad dollars. “Platforms are Abandoning U.S. Democracy.” (Tech Policy Press, Bridget Barrett and Daniel Kreiss): The authors explore how social media platforms have walked away from their commitments to protect democracy, so much so that the current state of platform content moderation is more like 2016 than 2020. 🔎 TIPS? COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS? We would love to hear from you—just reply to this e-mail and drop us a line. Give us your feedback, alert us to competition policy news, or let us know your favorite story from this issue. |