View this email in your browser

**SEPTEMBER 25, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

What Do You Get When You Google 'Antitrust'?

****

The first search term that appears for me is "the regulation of the
concentration of economic power." And no company epitomizes concentrated
economic power quite like Google itself, with its domination of search,
of ads, and its use of its privileged role to squash competitors.

As it happens, the Justice Department is on the verge of filing an epic
antitrust case against Google, which stands to be the biggest such suit
since the Microsoft case of the 1990s. The government did not succeed in
breaking up Microsoft, but the settlement of the case in 2004 compelled
Microsoft to rein in some of its predatory tactics.

As Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley wait to see if the Google
suit is filed, Google's allies and publicists have been doing their
best to confuse public opinion. According to Google-funded
organizations, the case is a hurry-up political hit job by Trump AG Bill
Barr, an all-purpose villain, supposedly because Google and other Big
Tech companies lean Democratic.

This is nonsense. The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating
Google on the merits on and off since 2011. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has
repeatedly called for action against Google's monopoly excesses. The
Democratic chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, David Cicilline,
recently said of Google, "It used its surveillance over web traffic to
identify competitive threats and crush them. It has dampened innovation
and new business growth and it's dramatically increased the price of
accessing users on the internet."

Earlier this month, 13 leading progressive groups including the Open
Markets Institute, the Working Families Party, Our Revolution, and the
Center for Digital Democracy sent a letter

to the nation's state attorneys general, urging them to join the
litigation against Google.

This, however, does not make Bill Barr a good guy. But even a stopped
clock is right twice a day. Barr may let this suit go forward for all
the wrong reasons. But the time is long overdue to deal with Google's
excesses.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

[link removed]

The Congressional District That Could Decide the Presidency

Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, in some scenarios, provides the
margin of victory for Joe Biden. So why isn't the House race there
getting more attention from Democratic leaders? BY ALEXANDER SAMMON

Ultra-Rich Sen. Kelly Loeffler's Family Has Taken In $3 Million in
Farm Subsidies

The scandal is what's legal, as they say. BY DAVID DAYEN

Trump's War on Workers

From silencing their voices to depressing their incomes to endangering
their lives, the president has consistently abused working Americans.
BY THEA M. LEA

How a Biden Administration Could Advance the Liberal Legal Movement

Republican administrations have worked hand in glove with the Federalist
Society to incubate and place far-right lawyers throughout government.
Progressives need to be just as strategic. BY JAY SWANSON

Unsanitized: How the Muni Bond Market Is Preventing Economic Recovery

The role of Wall Street financiers in forcing austerity on state and
local governments. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for September 25,
2020. BY DAVID DAYEN

To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe. 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

 

[link removed]

YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

Copyright (C) 2020 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

The American Prospect, Inc., 1225 I Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC xxxxxx, United States