Biden: It’s all “about capitalism working for people”

Created
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 01:00
Updated
Sat, 28/01/2023 - 01:00
A “new mindset is apparent” President Joe Biden exceeds expectations. (He’s exceeded mine.) But in several non-flashy ways people may not have noticed. David Dayen notices that Uncle Joe is taking on corporate concentration and bringing the busting back to trust busting (American Prospect): On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed one of the most sweeping changes to domestic policy since FDR. It was not legislation: His signature climate and health law would take another year to gestate. This was a request that the government get into the business of fostering competition in the U.S. economy again. Flanked by Cabinet officials and agency heads, Biden condemned Robert Bork’s pro-corporate legal revolution in the 1980s, which destroyed antitrust, leading to concentrated markets, raised prices, suppressed wages, stifled innovation, weakened growth, and robbing citizens of the liberty to pursue their talents. Competition policy, Biden said, “is how we ensure that our economy isn’t about people working for capitalism; it’s about capitalism working for people.” Joe had me with that line. He gets it. I’ve used similar formulations for years. The root problem isn’t that the economy doesn’t work for people; it is that people work for the economy. People should be holding the corporation’s leash; instead it feels as if we’re wearing the collar. I spent a career working inside small and large engineering companies with national and international clients. You probably have some of their products. I wouldn’t trust any farther than I could throw them. But I digress. Biden’s order proposed 72…