For 40 years, untrammeled monopoly power has been the defining characteristic of the American economy. In the 1980s, after a laissez-faire approach to antitrust laws originating with the Chicago school took hold in the Reagan administration, wealth inequality soared and new innovators struggled to break through an incumbency advantage favored by Wall Street.
Only during the Biden administration have those trend lines begun to change, thanks to a new crop of antitrust regulators: Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra have sent a clear message that the full body of anti-monopoly laws will be enforced to ensure open, competitive markets for consumers, businesses, and workers.
The presidential election will decide whether this brief window of opportunity to radically reshape economic liberty in this country can fully take root as a more permanent policy structure. But the stakes for corporate power are uniquely multifaceted. It’s one of the rare policy areas where a baseline consensus has emerged, in large part because of a massive political shift since the 2008 financial crisis.