New York Time's David McCabe writes that Attorney General Xavier Becerra is in Google and Facebook’s backyard. But unlike nearly all other state attorneys general, he won’t say whether he’s investigating them. McCabe reports that on Oct. 1, eight groups who have advocated more aggressive scrutiny of companies like Facebook and Google wrote to Mr. Becerra asking to discuss their concerns with him. Sarah Miller, the deputy director of one group, the Open Markets Institute, said they wanted “to offer to share our views, to hear his views and to help brief or provide educational support.”
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Reuters reports Alphabet Inc's, Google's holding company's, quarterly results which are under the shadow of a major antitrust probe by over 40 U.S. attorneys general. Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard told Reuters five years later the Google practices concerning investigators has not abated. “But the political winds have shifted,” said Hubbard, who worked for the New York AG from 2005 to 2012. “There’s a lot more momentum to fix the situation.”
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Fast Company's Talib Visram profiles Open Markets Institute Executive Director and Founder Barry Lynn. Lynn talks about his “vision of an alternative political economy” based on the nation’s founding principles. Regarding monopolies, Lynn told Fast Company: it is not just the tech companies. They’re just the problem on steroids.”
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Jessica Corbet writes that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has elevated broader concerns about how powerful tech giants are "poisoning the well of our democracy." She cites Open Markets Fellow Matt Stoller's op-ed on the New York Times on how tech companies are destroying democracy.
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The Guardian's Lauren Gambino speaks to Open Markets Deputy Director Sarah Miller about Facebook being put under the gun of antitrust scrutiny and reports on Elizabeth Warren and Mark Zuckerberg facing off over big tech and its influence over our lives. “They’re begging for regulation because they know they game it," Miller told The Guardian. "They know they can shape it, they know they can avoid it and they know that it will likely inhibit their competitors who won’t have the same resources. But, more than anything, they do not want to be broken up.”
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POLITICO's Nancy Scola covers October's Democratic Debate and reports that former Vice President Joe Biden "was the quietest person on stage on the question of how to handle Silicon Valley." She speaks with Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard who said of the antitrust portion of the debate “People are understanding that it’s not just some technocratic, boring area. It’s fundamentally about equality and freedom, the American way, the American dream. It’s at the heart of capitalism and what we think of core American values.”
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AP's Marcy Gordon covers a speech Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made at Georgetown University on "free speech." Reporters were not allowed to ask questions — only students were given that chance, filtered by a moderator. Facebook and Georgetown barred news organizations from filming, Gordon reports. Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard told the AP: “It’s quite ironic.”
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The Washington Post's Seung Min Kim reports that Demand Justice will release a list of 32 suggested Supreme Court nominees for any future Democratic president as they ramp up their push for the 2020 contenders to do the same. Among their suggested nominees is Open Markets Board Chair Zephyr Teachout.
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Matt Stoller’s Goliath: The 100 Year-War Between Monopoly and Power and Populism charts the shifts in American attitudes towards corporate concentration. Kyle Sammin reviews the book on the National Review.
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Vox's Tara Golshan reports on Bernie Sanders' plan on corporate accountability and democracy and gets comments from Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller. “Saying that the FTC has failed its mission and lost its credibility as a regulatory agency is important,” Stoller said. “Bernie is coming out with a progressive platform to address monopolies, but it is actually pro-business platform. ... A lot of the pressure from the FTC is coming from the business community.”
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AP's Barbara Ortutay reports on how Facebook's Libra project has been battered by defections with the exit of PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, eBay, and Stripe. Sarah Miller, deputy director of Open Markets Institute, told the AP it was “insanity” to trust Facebook to launch a global cryptocurrency when it is already facing regulatory scrutiny around the world over data privacy.
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The Guardian exclusively reports that as US job market tightens Bechtel senior vice-president appeared to urge companies not to compete on salaries, arousing ‘real wage-fixing concerns. Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan tells The Guardian: “This type of activity is collusive or a prelude to collusion. At a minimum, the remarks should be treated as inviting rivals not to compete for workers.”
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Gerald Berk reviews Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller's new book Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy on The American Prospect. He writes that Matt Stoller’s ‘Goliath’ seeks to recover and explain the anti-monopoly tradition of the 20th century, at a time when it is urgently needed in the 21st. "Democrats who seek to revitalize their party would do well to study Matt Stoller’s Goliath and incorporate—in a complex and thoughtful manner—its central teachings," Berk says.
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Axios Future analyzes why Walmart remains under the radar as big tech comes under scrutiny. “I don’t think anyone is paying attention to Walmart,” says Director of Enforcement Strategy, Sally Hubbard.
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POLITICO's Steve Overly reports that investigations from state attorneys general and federal agencies are causing a rift between free market conservatives and the party's more populist voices. He talks to Open Markets fellow Matt Stoller about the tech industry's waning influence. “People aren't afraid of them anymore" said Stoller. "It’s not that they don’t have power, they do have power. They don't carry the same level of fear."
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The New York Times reports on the troubles facing WeWork C.E.O. Adam Neumann before his recent resignation. Reporters asked Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller for comment. “Investors saw through Lyft, and they saw through Uber as well,” Matt Stoller told the NYT. “This one has simply been rejected. Investors are saying, ‘We’re not going to tolerate this nonsense anymore.’”
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