DOUBLE FEATURE: The Growing Antimonopoly Movement at Home and Abroad

Photo credit: Image by Christine Roy licensed via Unsplash

With Big Pharma blocking patent waivers for coronavirus vaccines, Big Tech undermining vital checks on their power from the European Union, and Big Shipping magnates choking global commerce and worsening supply chain woes, the global nature of corporate monopolies has never been clearer. That's why in 2022, we’re launching ReThink Trade, a new program at Economic Liberties that will identify failures and solutions in global trade policy through the prism of corporate power.

 

We are thrilled to announce that Lori Wallach will be joining us to lead ReThink Trade. Lori is a veteran in the fight for fair and effective trade policy, internationally recognized for her decades of tireless advocacy as the Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. To put it another way, one reporter described her as ‘the LeBron James of trade policy reform.’ We are ecstatic to have her joining our team.

 

Under Lori’s leadership, ReThink Trade will focus on reforming trade rules to advance equity, resiliency, and democracy, instead of maximizing the economic power of multi-national monopolies. We’re excited that this program can help break down silos between trade and antimonopoly work and deepen collaboration with allies abroad. 

 

Back at home, the Biden administration is making progress fulfilling the promises made in the President’s Executive Order on Competition Policy. To catch up on the latest, we recently convened a town hall discussion between small business owners, labor leaders, and three of the president’s top antimonopoly champions: White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti, and Special Assistant to the President Tim Wu. We discussed a new White House initiative unveiled that day to help level the playing field for small business owners, and many of the new actions the administration is taking to combat our concentration crisis. Watch the full town hall here or read the  Huffington Post's great write-up.

What’s Really Driving Inflation? Corporate Greed. National news coverage of skyrocketing inflation is missing the truth at the heart of the matter. Shortages and rising labor costs are being caused by corporate greed – not economic fundamentals or stimulus checks. While the country is panicked and exasperated by supply chain bottlenecks and spiking grocery bills, big corporations are using our fear as an excuse to raise prices. On a new episode of Off-Kilter, Economic Liberties’ Research Director Matt Stoller and Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud explain how corporations are raising costs for consumers simply because they can, not because they need to.

 

Where Are All the Rapid Tests? In September, we sounded the alarm that at-home COVID-19 tests were scarce and expensive in the U.S. because two firms won early FDA approval and were allowed to dominate the market — and both firms previously employed the FDA official who oversees the approval process. Since then, ProPublica has dug in on this story and the Biden administration has taken notice. Earlier this month, President Biden heeded our advice to increase at-home testing availability for all Americans, while outlets like The New York Times echoed our call to break the rapid test duopoly to increase access and bring costs down.

 

Wu & Khan & Kanter, Complete. Ahead of Thanksgiving, the Senate gave the antimonopoly movement something to be very thankful for: the confirmation of Jonathan Kanter to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice. And in The Washington Post, Helain Olen reminded consumers to be thankful for FTC Chair Khan’s leadership in protecting them from membership and subscription services, which Economic Liberties’ Sarah Miller notes is “essentially a form of soft theft.”

 

Making The Argument for Breaking Up Facebook. In a new episode of The New York Times’ “The Argument,” Economic Liberties’ Executive Director Sarah Miller makes the case for breaking up Facebook. In a debate between Miller and Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, Miller details the harms posed by Facebook’s dominance in digital advertising, including the harms it imposes on small businesses, and describes the dangerous nature of its vast information and data harvesting regime. Listen to the discussion here.

 

The Chamber of Commerce’s Pity Party: Suffice to say the Chamber of Commerce — and the small group of powerful corporations it represents — is displeased with the FTC’s robust efforts to protect American consumers and small business owners from monopoly abuse. Last week, the Chamber launched a six-figure ad buy attacking the FTC’s ability to enforce fair markets — the latest in a series of actions from the group designed to undermine the FTC’s antitrust enforcement. Economic Liberties called out the Chamber’s corrupt and deceitful strike, and will continue to do so next year.

 

Bank Merger Fight Brewing At FDIC. Banks are merging at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, with banking regulators’ rubber stamps speeding up apace. Fortunately, progressive leaders like CFPB Director Rohit Chopra are fighting to apply the brakes, but FDIC chairwoman and Trump appointee Jelena McWilliams is standing in the way. Last week, we decided that enough is enough and joined forces with 30 other organizations to call on the DOJ, Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, and FDIC to temporarily halt the consideration of pending bank mergers until bank merger guidelines are strengthened. Last month, Economic Liberties partnered with More Perfect Union to draw attention to the consequences of bank consolidation, telling the story of one Connecticut city facing job loss and economic hardship after the acquisition of its local bank.

 

State & Local Leaders Share Antimonopoly Expertise. In November, we hosted “Building Local Power to Confront Corporate Power,” an event focused on the ways state and local lawmakers are leading the national effort to protect Americans from the abuses of monopolies. The discussion featured remarks from New York State Senator Mike Gianaris and Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, as well as Florida State Representative Anna Eskamani, Illinois State Senator Robert Peters, and ALIGN NY’s Executive Director Maritza Silva-Farrell. Catch the full discussion here.

 

New Coalition Alert. Economic Liberties’ Director of State & Local Policy Pat Garofalo joined New York State Senator Mike Gianaris, Zephyr Teachout, ALIGN NY, workers, small business owners, and other New York elected officials and community organizations to launch the New Yorkers for a Fair Economy coalition. The coalition strives to protect communities from abusive practices of big corporations and achieve an economy that works for all, by passing legislation like the 21st Century Antitrust Act. Learn more about the coalition here!

 

The fight against corporate power is picking up steam and Economic Liberties is looking to grow our team. Whether it’s fighting for small businesses abused by Amazon and other gatekeepers, standing up for farmers and farm workers exploited by agriculture conglomerates, or protecting our privacy and the free press from information monopolies like Facebook and Google, we’re working to advance ideas and create momentum to break the power of the world’s most dangerous monopolies and return it to where it belongs — with all of us. We have several open positions, so come join our team!

• In the New Year, thanks to the Biden Executive Order on competition and a landmark proposal from the FDA, hearing aids will be more accessible and cheaper for millions of Americans who rely on the technology. 
• The U.S. House of Representatives passed The Ocean Shipping Reform Act 2021 in December, which takes on the ocean shipping cartel that has clogged up our ports and jacked up prices.
• While consumers across the U.S. are experiencing sticker shock over skyrocketing beef prices, the White House is working to address concentration in the meatpacking industry and recently released new data revealing their intentional price-gouging scheme.
• Newly minted CFPB Director Rohit Chopra sent a request to Big Tech in October for information on their payment systems and what they do with consumers’ financial data. CFPB is currently collecting public comments until December 21.
• The FTC has been cracking down on corporate crime by going after false Made in the USA claims, expanding the Criminal Referral Program, and ramping up enforcement against hard-to-cancel subscription and membership services.
• The Department of Justice has been busy putting the brakes on various worrisome mergers that would increase monopoly power, including Penguin Random House & Simon and Schuster, Aon-Willis Towers Watson, and US Sugar-Imperial Sugar.

 

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