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by LarryDarrell 283 days ago
The writing was on the wall when Kamala Harris wouldn't commit to keeping Lina Khan at the FTC. We had some soft Anti-Trust action for the first time in decades, and the Trusts responded. If we get the chance to try again, we should be more clear eyed about what we are up against.

I've de-Googled my life as best I can, but I know how little it actually matters. Now that Google is clearly on the path of closing up Android, I hope the Linux phone effort gets reinvigorated.
2 comments
thewebguyd 283 days ago
Unfortunately I don't think we're going to get the chance to try again. This, and Apple's upcoming case which they'll probably get off free as well, was our chance.

These companies are now even more emboldened, and with market caps bigger than the GDP of most countries, there is no one to stop them. Every politician has a number, and this administration has shown that open bribes are legal and expected.

Good luck prosecuting any big tech when they can pay billions of dollars to the administration to make anything go away.

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lotsofpulp 283 days ago
It does not make any sense to compare market capitalization to GDP.

GDP is a measurement of flow within a certain timespan, market capitalization is a guess by the market of the total potential at a specific point in time.

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daveguy 283 days ago
Wait, are you trying to blame this decision on Kamala Harris not pre-committing to keeping an anti-trust advocate in the FTC? I'm not sure if you noticed, but Kamala Harris is not president and never made these decisions about the FTC. I guarantee you her decisions would have been night and day better than the fraud currently inhabiting the whitehouse.

Maybe I'm just misinterpreting your words.

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LarryDarrell 282 days ago
I'm saying our tenuous attempts towards reestablishing the most basic of anti-trust was dead regardless of who won the election[1].

I think this decision would have been the same regardless of who won. As for the next few years... Harris was clearly signalling that her FTC would be a return to rubber stamping mergers and acting only against the most egregious corporate actions, and even then only when the penalties wouldn't be substantial. I doubt very much that her appointment to FTC Chair would be much different than the current Andrew Ferguson.

Nothing I've written endorses Trump or his actions. But we have to be a little bit more realistic about the interests that Harris was aiming to represent.

We can say that Harris would have been better than Trump in the aggregate, while also prioritizing the interests of Business over those of Consumers. Both these things can be true.

[1]https://jacobin.com/2024/12/harris-khan-antitrust-west-elect...

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daveguy 282 days ago
Misinterpreting a lack of commitment as a commitment to the opposite is a failure of logic.
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