Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Understanding Antitrust Laws and Their Impact on Economic Freedom

Transcript

Understanding Antitrust Laws and Their Impact on Economic Freedom · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: First and foremost, can you explain the basic principles of
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: anti trust laws and why they are important to protecting
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: our economic freedoms?
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: For sure? So anti trust and it's related cousin the
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: anti monopoly framework are really about the rules that companies
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: have to abide by when they compete. So competition is good.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: It is the law of the land in this country.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: And we like competition because it basically means that companies
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: have to compete to provide the best service. It keeps
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: prices down. And what anti trust does is it prescribes
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: some really simple, flexible rules so that you don't have monopolies, right,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: which is when one company controls, you know, the provision
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: of a product or a service in the market, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: when you don't have the undo accumulation of power, right,
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: corporate power in a market. There are different ways that
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: you can accumulate that power. Sometimes it's by mergers, right,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: And so anti trust is applied to mergers that are
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: notified in the United States, typically only the biggest mergers.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: And the reason it's really important to understand anti trust
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: for your audience, for every American to understand anti trust,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: is because it is so fundamental to our full participation
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: in our democracy. And if I can say just a
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: few words about what I mean about that, I think
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: that black Americans have shed blood to give meaning to
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: this fundamental proposition that all people are created people. Our
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: forefathers have fought for social rights, for political rights, for example,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: the right to vote. But as I've thought about this
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: work more and really gotten in the books and read
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: a lot of the thought beforehand, what I realized is
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: that so many civil rights leaders understood that social and
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: political rights standing alone would not be sufficient to protect
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: our full participation and our full citizenship in this country.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: That you really need economic liberty as that third plank
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: to protect all of your other liberties. And there's really
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: incredible scholarship and writing from WBDU boys, m Okay, Bayard Rusten,
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: and others who really understood this. And so that's why
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: I'm so pleased to be able to talk to all
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: of you and your audience about why I think antitrust
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: is good for the entire country, but in particular Black.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Americans given the digital economy that we're in now, Like,
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: how important do you think it is to have the
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: anti trust laws and do you think some companies in
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: the tech space are actually too big to fail?
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: It's a great question. I think that let me take
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: a step back about digital platforms and the big tech companies.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: So there you should know that the antitrust laws apply
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: to the entire economy, healthcare, agriculture, financial services, labor markets,
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: and everything in between, professional sports and education and so forth.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: But you know, in the last twenty years or so,
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: recall that you know there was a two tiered recovery
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: from the financial crisis. Some people lost a lot and
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: never quite made up around some people lost a little bit,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: and maybe you're doing a little bit better. And there's
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: a sense in this country for a lot of people
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: that economic opportunity is not what it used to be.
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: And the tech platforms are interesting because that sentiment that
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: I just described actually is true regardless of who you are,
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: your demographic or your political leanings. Right, so people on
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: the left and the right are concerned about economic opportunity
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: in this country. And for a lot of folks who
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: are self styled conservatives, they're thinking about the tech platforms
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: and the power that they have to censor people, the
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: power that they have to deplatform people, the power to
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: control what ideas even make it to the public. And
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: in the case of Google, for example, which I can
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: talk about because we filed monopolization cases against Google, one
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: of which went to trial last year and where we
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: look forward to closing arguments in the spring, and another
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: one that's going to trial this year. And so I
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: think that some companies are both big and do things
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: that are against the law. And in the case of
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: Google Search, that is a case about a company that
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: has we'll say ninety plus percent share of all the
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: Internet searches that are conducted every day in this country,
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: and they entered into agreements with.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
• 6:09
  Speaker 6: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,
• 6:12
  Speaker 6: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,
• 6:20
  Speaker 6: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated
• 6:27
  Speaker 6: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly
• 6:38
  Speaker 6: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: National Association Member FDIC. Erness What's Up? You ever walk
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: into a small business and everything just works like the
• 6:54
  Speaker 6: checkout is fast the receipts are digital. Tipping is a breeze,
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: and you're out the before the line even builds. Odds
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: are they're using Square. We love supporting businesses that run
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: on Square because it just feels seamless. Whether it's a
• 7:08
  Speaker 6: local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop up market,
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: or even one of our merch partners, Square makes it
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run
• 7:18
  Speaker 6: their business with confidence, all from one simple system. If
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: you're a business owner or even just thinking about launching
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: something soon, Square is hands down one of the best
• 7:28
  Speaker 6: tools out there to help you start, run and grow.
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: It's not just about payments, it's about giving you time
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: back so you can focus on what matters most ready.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square
• 7:41
  Speaker 6: dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more that
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate.
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: pushing your vision forward.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: Security, browser companies, device manufacturers including your phone, device manufacturers
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: with wireless carriers and the like to make sure that
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: they were the default search engine. And what's interesting about
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: those digital platforms is that, like Google Search, is that
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: the more people use Google Search, the better the product becomes.
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: And it also deprives competitors of the opportunity to provide
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: you a product and so digital market. This is a
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: concept that people call network effects and such. But again,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: let's zoom out and talk about why that should matter
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: to all people. You know, when you go and conduct
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: a search, you might be looking at healthcare information, you
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: might be thinking of reproductive information, you might be thinking
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: about really intimate personal decisions about how you are going
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: to live your life and how you're going to you
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: exercise your rights as a consumer.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: And so.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Having competition amongst search engines to give you the very
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: best search results is very important. And we've seen interesting
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: reporting about how, you know, concerns about how search results
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: are delivered can actually vary information that people need, or worse,
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: serve up very harmful information. And again, that affects the
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: experience of citizenship in this country, and it's a way
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: that all of us feel the effects and ramifications of
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: corporate power in like very basic ways in our everyday life.
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's interesting when we hear anti trust laws, we
• 10:46
  Speaker 7: usually again we hear Tech, we hear Google, we hear Mata,
• 10:49
  Speaker 7: we hear Apple. Those companies always come into into the forefront.
• 10:53
  Speaker 7: From a standpoint of the average day citizen, it's tough
• 10:56
  Speaker 7: for us to understand it or have a care base
• 10:58
  Speaker 7: about it because we're just so unaware. So it feels
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: like big brother is being watched by another big brother.
• 11:03
  Speaker 7: And then whatever the result is, we'll figure out how
• 11:05
  Speaker 7: do we get more people involved in understanding just the
• 11:08
  Speaker 7: ramifications of some of the things you're talking about on
• 11:10
  Speaker 7: an everyday basis.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: So I will say that under the Biden Harris administration,
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: and this leadership set at the Justice Department to include
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Assistant Attorney General in charge
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: of the Any Trust Division, a guy named Jonathan Canter,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: and other very important figures including Lena Cohn, the chair
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: of the FTC in others, there has been a whole
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: of government approach to thinking about anti trust and competition issues.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: So way back in July twenty twenty one, the President
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: signed an executive order where he said that it would
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: be the policy of his administration to take into account
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: competition and the benefits of competition policy and antitrust in
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: every single agency. So every again, the the Department of Agriculture,
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: the Department of Transportation, the Federal Communications Commission and more
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: are all a part of this effort to make sure
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: that they are taking into account competition principles in their
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: everyday work for all of us at the Any Trust Division,
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: or I have the distinct privilege of serving as the
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: second highest ranking official and working with a staff of
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: more than eight hundred people who are dedicated to faithfully
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: serving the public and bringing the benefits of competition to
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: everyday people. We're thinking about just how we talk to
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: the public right. Anti trust for a long time was
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: really technocratic. It was steeped and kind of murky economics.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: And that's really a shame, because as I've gone back
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: and engaged with the history, it's clearer to me than
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: ever that anti trust is for all of us. And so,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: for example, we are trying to make sure that we're
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: using plain language in our complaints, our guidance documents, or
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: making sure that we're not privileging a small few who
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: already kind of know what's going on at the Anti
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: Trust Division and down at the Federal Trade Commission, which
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: is our sister agency, and that we're setting up access
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: for everyday people to get the information that they need.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: And so we go out and talk to as many
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: people as we possibly can. I'll give you just one example.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: We spoke to a group of farmers that we're coming
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: to Washington for the day just to talk about how
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: we think about competition and agriculture. And we're going out
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: to colleges and universities, We're going out to conferences, We're
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: talking to content creators. We're just talking to as many
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: people as we possibly can because we feel so deeply
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: that anti trust is for the people, and we as
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: public servants, are obligated to protect every citizen in this country,
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: regardless of whether you have power, whether you don't.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Have been arrested.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: If you are here illegally, your next you will be fined.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Nearly one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: will never return. But if you register using our CBP
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: America's laws, border and families will be protected.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,