FEATURED: Economic Liberties’ Morgan Harper Testifies on Platform Competition

On Thursday, February 25, at 10am Eastern, Senior Advisor Morgan Harper will appear in front of the House Judiciary Committee to discuss Economic Liberties’ policy priorities and the recommendations in the Antitrust Subcommittee’s recent report on restoring competition in digital markets. 

The hearing — “Reviving Competition, Part 1: Proposals to Address Gatekeeper Power and Lower Barriers to Entry Online” — comes on the heels of a particularly scandalous week for Facebook, in which it shut off access to Australian news and information around the world and is under increasing scrutiny for allegedly systemically defrauding advertisers on its platform. Mark Zuckerberg, along with Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey, are testifying in late March on dis- and misinformation. (Economic Liberties published a Quick Take in the aftermath of the Capitol attacks explaining how Google and Facebook’s business models are the underlying cause of the spread of disinformation, along with an analysis that found that Facebook made almost $3 billion from the spread of QAnon content last year.)

The Latest

The Times Covers Economic Liberties’ New Blueprint for the Biden Administration. The New York Times’ “Dealbook” interviewed Executive Director Sarah Miller about Economic Liberties’ new antitrust and competition policy blueprint, Democratizing Markets: How the Biden Administration Can Advance an Antitrust and Competition Policy Agenda for Working People, Independent Businesses, and Resilient Communities. The article notes that “people aren’t just consumers — they are also workers, voters, entrepreneurs and community members. In practice, Ms. Miller argues, as industries consolidate, consumers sometimes pay less for products, but wages also stagnate and entrepreneurship falters.”

We’ll Take You Up On That. President Biden has pledged to review and potentially unwind anti-competitive mergers approved during the Trump administration. One problem, however, is that basic merger data is hard to come by. That’s why Economic Liberties released a comprehensive database of more than 1,300 merger transactions that occurred on the Trump Administration’s watch. Read about it in “Dealbook” or explore the data here. Sarah Miller also shared her views on Biden’s likely approach to addressing concentration in the tech industry in the Washington Post, while Research Director Matt Stoller spoke to The New York Times about Biden’s overall economic vision.

“This Business Feeds 14 People.” In a marquee opinion piece for The New York Times, Economic Liberties’ Senior Fellow Moe Tkacik chronicled the human consequences of Jeff Bezos’ legacy of ruthless monopolization and the potential for Senator Amy Klobuchar’s new legislation to address it. (For more on our take on her bills, read our statement.) Research Director Matt Stoller wrote about the implications of Jeff Bezos’ new “Executive Chairman” role in the Guardian and Sarah Miller discussed growing policymaker scrutiny of Amazon on BBC World News.

Antitrust Appointees’ Independence from Big Tech Can’t Be In Doubt. Last month, Economic Liberties worked with Public Citizen to bring together 40 progressive groups, including Indivisible, Main Street Alliance, and Action Center on Race and the Economy, to send a clear message to President Biden: antitrust appointees should have a clear track record of challenging tech monopolies — not working for them. Read more in The Intercept, Politico, and The Hill.

Does Market Power Lead to Political Power? This Thursday at 1pm Eastern, Sarah Miller joins professors Luigi Zingales, James Robinson, and David Moss for a lively debate on the dimensions of economic power at the University of Chicago’s Stigler Center annual antitrust conference. Register for the (virtual) session here. 

Economic Liberties’ Advisors Take Key Roles at the NEC and NSC. As Sarah closed out her role on the Biden transition team, we said goodbye to one of Economic Liberties’ founding board members, Sameera Fazili, who took up a new post as a Deputy Director at the National Economic Council, where she oversees competition, innovation, and manufacturing policy for the White House. Rush Doshi, who worked with Economic Liberties as an advisor to our national security program, is now the National Security Council’s Director of China Policy.

A Few More Great Reads. Health care policy analyst Olivia Webb breaks down why vaccine development succeeded but vaccine distribution is failing in the American Prospect; Director of National Security Policy Lucas Kunce explained how financialization is undermining American security for ProMarket; and Advocacy Manager Zach Freed co-wrote a piece with the Institute for Local-Self Reliance’s Stacy Mitchell, also for ProMarket, on the FTC’s role in expanding the market power of pharmacy benefit managers. 

News from Around the Network:

Lina Khan Honored by TIME Magazine and Senator Elizabeth Warren. TIME chose scholar and public servant Lina Khan as part of its “TIME 100 Next” feature. In her profile, Senator Warren wrote that “Lina’s deep knowledge and commitment to discovering the facts on the ground have not only drawn attention to the problem of concentration but shown how to address it.”

As a Historic Unionization Effort Unfolds, a New Progressive Media Project Uncovers How Amazon Wields Political Power Over Local Communities. A new progressive media project called More Perfect Union discovered Amazon used its local leverage to change traffic light patterns in Bessamer, Alabama, so union organizers couldn’t talk to warehouse workers while they idled at red lights. Check out their viral video that exposed the story. 

States Step Up in the Fight Against Big Tech. Maryland is attempting to institute a first-of-its-kind tax on digital advertising revenue to support publishers, New York AG Tish James sued Amazon for inadequate protections for warehouse workers during COVID-19, and North Dakota’s legislature introduced a bill to limit the power of Apple and Google as the dominant app stores. While the North Dakota bill was voted down, two state senators pursuing a similar approach in Arizona made a powerful case for the need to check Big Tech’s power to catalyze entrepreneurship.