Open Markets Institute joins Village Capital in hosting a conference, “A Right to Compete: Are Monopolies Crushing Entrepreneurship?” to explore the declining right to compete in America.

At its best, the United States is home to entrepreneurs who lead the world in innovation, and to the most developed and diverse sources of investment capital anywhere. But today America’s business community is in a crisis. Entrepreneurship is at a forty-year low and startups are closing their doors faster than any time in 50 years. Even for those that succeed, the biggest corporations increasingly set the rules for innovation.

This conference features leading entrepreneurs and policymakers, as well as community leaders, researchers, and advocates, detailing the nation’s declining economic dynamism, exploring the role of anticompetitive practices in that decline, and discussing solutions to support a resurgence of the American entrepreneur.

Participants also discussed some of the larger social and economic effects of the sharp decline in entrepreneurship, including the dangers posed to investors and the broader economic, political, and material well-being of Americans.

Competition: The Forgotten Fourth Pillar of the SEC’s Mission

Power: The Incredible Concentration of Economic and Political Power in America

Speaker

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)

Introduction by Marcellus Andrews, OMI Board Chair

Tech: Digital Technology Transformation of Society

Speaker

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)

Introduction by Ross Baird

Global Business: Profiteering Corporations

Speakers

Rana Foroohar, Global business columnist, The Financial Times, and author of “Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business introduction”

Moderated Q&A with Barry Lynn

Solutions: Addressing Monopoly Power’s Role in Entrepreneurship Decline

Barry Lynn, Executive Director, Open Markets Institute

Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and author of Big Box Swindle

John Lettieri, Co-Founder and President, Economic Innovation Group

Ebony Pope, Director of U.S. Ventures, Village Capital

Moderated by Jim Tankersley, Tax and Economics Reporter, The New York Times

Speaker

Robert J. Jackson Jr., U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner

Introduction by Sarah Miller, OMI Deputy Director

Internet: Online Connect and Broadband Initiatives

Speaker

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)

Introduction by Ross Baird

Entrepreneurs: The Declining Right to Compete

Speakers

Lillian Salerno, Co-founder and former COO of Retractable Technologies, and former Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development, USDA

Rodney Foxworth, Jr., Executive Director, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Mike Callicrate, Owner, Ranch Foods Direct

Alex Laskey, President and Founder, OPOWER

Moderated by Victor Hwang, Kauffman Foundation