Welcome to The Corner. In this issue, we present four important new books that reveal in rich — and alarming — detail how so much of our economic and social lives have fallen under the control of immensely powerful private corporations. 

To read previous editions of The Corner, click here.

Event Alert: Barry Lynn Speaks With Zephyr Teachout and David Dayen on Tackling Monopoly Power

The Open Markets Institute is delighted to invite you to join a public conversation between Zephyr Teachout and David Dayen about their respective new books, Break ‘Em Up and Monopolized. The event will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 1 p.m. Eastern and will be hosted by Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn. Register for the event here. 

Monopoly at the Beach - Open Markets Recommendations for Your August Reading

This summer, we’ve seen a raft of excellent new books on the dangers of monopoly and what to do about it. The quantity and quality of the works illustrate the surging momentum of the anti-monopoly movement, as scholars, journalists, and activists work to expand our understanding of this crisis. In this late-summer issue of The Corner, we want to recognize four new books that stand out as worthy of adding to your anti-monopoly bookshelf, in the order in which they were published: 

 

Thomas Frank, The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism

In his 11th book, Frank, the author of bestsellers What’s the Matter with Kansas? and Listen, Liberal, gives a sweeping history of the populist tradition in the United States. Frank details how Populism was first shaped by farmers and workers as a response to the concentration of economic power by private corporations in the 19th century. Populism was, Frank shows, one of the most important democratic movements in American history, one that later shaped many of the most important New Deal-era programs of the 1930s. Yet at the time, and ever since, plutocrats and their allies have erroneously tarred Populism as a movement that is largely racist and tribal in nature. Indeed, Frank details how this misrepresentation of Populism continues today, especially within Washington and New York progressive circles. Purchase the book here. 

 

Zephyr Teachout, Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money 

In her second book, Teachout, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, explains how every facet of American life is controlled by monopolists such as Monsanto, Google, and Facebook. Teachout explains how these monopolists use their market power to warp American industries to entrench their dominance. Teachout then details how this concentration of power and wealth affects America’s judicial and political systems, as well as the day-to-day lives of every citizen. Teachout’s remedy is simple: enforce antitrust law. Teachout’s contribution is a much-needed reminder that monopolies distort more than consumer preferences; they are also a direct threat to rule by the people. Purchase the book here. 

 

David Dayen, Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power

Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, explores the daily yet often indiscernible harms that monopolies cause in the lives of every individual and community. In his second book, Dayen goes beyond a factual analysis of America’s monopoly problem and presents personal stories that show in vivid detail how monopolies distort and manipulate many of our most mundane everyday interactions, even with members of our own families. Dayen’s stories portray the direct harms to society caused by monopoly, such as increased costs for medicine, slow and unreliable internet, and terrible customer service from airlines. Purchase the book here.

 

Tom Philpott, Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It

Journalist and farmer Philpott, in his first book, explores how a small group of corporations and financiers have captured control over the main chokepoints of America’s farming and food systems, and the ways their actions threaten the sustainability of our food supply. Philpott focuses on the two most abundant food-producing regions in the United States, the prairies of the Midwest and California’s Central Valley. Philpott explains how the industrial farming methods and crop monocultures of large corporations harm farmland and deplete vital supplies of water. Philpott bases his work on detailed interviews with farmers and elucidates some of the alternative practices that could help prevent environmental disaster. Purchase the book here. 

Event: Building a Truly ‘Public’ Health Care System

The Open Markets Institute hosted a conversation on Aug. 6 about the potential for a new mass movement of patient-activists and health care providers dedicated to making sure that America’s health care system serves the public interest. Panelists discussed how monopolies have captured control over local health care delivery systems, including hospitals and doctors’ practices. These giant platforms also control many of the local markets for health insurance, giving them the ability to operate as both providers and purchasers of health care. The event was moderated by Open Markets Policy Director Phillip Longman, and panelists included: 

• Shannon Brownlee, senior vice president, Lown Institute; author of Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer 

• Kavita Patel, practicing primary care physician and nonresident fellow, Brookings Institution; former director of policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, Obama administration

• Lisa Frank, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare PA, the largest and fastest growing union of nurses and health care workers in Pennsylvania. 

• Udit Thakur, research associate, Open Markets Institute; co-author of “An Epidemic of Greed” in the July special issue of Washington Monthly; labor and public-interest organizer.

The complete video of the entire discussion is available online here. 

🔊 ANTI-MONOPOLY RISING:

• The Canadian Competition Bureau announced last week that it plans to investigate whether Amazon’s marketplace dominance harms suppliers, consumers, and other businesses. (CNBC)
   

• Regulators with the German Federal Cartel Office are investigating how Amazon prices goods sold by third parties on its platform, with one agency speaker asserting that it is “not up to a private platform to be a price regulator or the price police.” (CNBC)
   

• The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and the American Booksellers Association sent a joint letter to the House Antitrust Subcommittee to urge the committee to take action against Amazon for utilizing discrimination and other unfair and illegal tactics “to interfere with the free flow of information, ideas and literature on a large scale.” (Association of American Publishers)

📝 WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO:

• Barry Lynn wrote the cover story in the September print edition of Harper's Magazine, explaining how Amazon, Google, and Facebook manipulate flows of news, information, and commerce in ways that allow them to extort and silence publishers, authors, journalists, and others. 
   

• Claire Kelloway published an article in Civil Eats discussing the sale of Mountain State Rosen (MSR), a lamb processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, to its competitor JBS, one of the world’s largest meat producers. Kelloway explores the harms that JBS’s plan to close MSR would inflict on workers and Western ranchers.  
   

• Sandeep Vaheesan was quoted in CNN, USA Today, Polygon, Variety, Gamefreaks, B News, TechXplore, and Latercera discussing the importance of Epic Games filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google and Apple after both platforms removed Epic’s immensely popular video game Fortnite from their respective app stores.
   

• Sandeep Vaheesan was quoted in Columbia Journalism Review discussing the many conflicts of interests among corporate lawyers and antitrust officials at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. Vaheesan praised the work of the members of House Antitrust Subcommittee, noting that the legislative branch was returning to its historically strong role in antitrust enforcement.
   

• Sally Hubbard’s new book Monopolies Suck was profiled by MediaPost. The article highlights Hubbard’s focus on digital ad pricing, Big Tech acquisitions, and privacy protections. 
   

• Michael Bluhm was quoted in Morning Consult explaining why Open Markets Institute is not in favor of Microsoft’s potential acquisition of TikTok, adding that the government should instead find a buyer for TikTok among investors that are not already powerful monopolists. “Members of Congress need to understand that Microsoft is like Facebook: a rich, powerful corporation that should not be allowed to expand its areas of dominance into social media,” Bluhm said. 
   

• Barry Lynn was mentioned in The Washington Spectator as one of the individuals leading the movement calling for the reconstruction of antitrust laws to protect American democracy.
   

• The Open Markets Institute was mentioned in Axios as a signatory on a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, advocating for Congress to require regulators to structurally separate Amazon’s operations and impose common carrier regulation to prevent Amazon from giving preference to its own products on its marketplace. Open Markets’ signing of the letter was also mentioned in Start Magazine. 

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📈 VITAL STAT: 20%

The percentage of the S&P 500’s total market capitalization on Aug. 19 comprised by the five Big Tech monopolists: Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple. 

📚 WHAT WE'RE READING:

• “A Grand Strategy of Resilience: American Power in the Age of Fragility” (Foreign Affairs, Ganesh Sitaraman): Sitaraman argues that the United States needs a “grand strategy” of resilience to protect the country’s economy and democracy from the many threats to its vitality.

• “The Utter Failure of the Trump Administration’s Antitrust Chief”(Slate, Chris Sagers): Sagers examines the repeated failures of Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, to use the agency’s power to fight concentrated private power. 

BARRY LYNN’S NEW BOOK:

Liberty From All Masters

The New American Autocracy vs. The Will of the People

St. Martins Press will publish Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn’s new book, Liberty From All Masters, on September 29. The book is Barry’s first since Cornered, in 2010. In it, he details how Google, Amazon, and Facebook developed the ability to manipulate the flow of news, information, and business in America, and are transforming this power into autocratic systems of control. Barry then details how Americans over the course of two centuries built a “System of Liberty,” and shows how we Americans can put this system to work again today. Pre-order your copy here. 

SALLY HUBBARD’S NEW BOOK:

MONOPOLIES SUCK - 7 Ways Big Corporations Rule Your Life and How to Take Back Control

And don’t forget that Simon & Schuster will publish Monopolies Suck by Open Markets Enforcement Director Sally Hubbard on Oct. 27

Pre-order your copy here. 

Open Markets Employment Opportunities

You can find the full job listings here. 

🔎 TIPS? COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS?

We would love to hear from you—just reply to this e-mail and drop us a line. Give us your feedback, alert us to competition policy news, or let us know your favorite story from this issue. 

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