The economy and inflation are key issues in the 2024 campaign.
Free and fair markets foster lower prices, higher wages, technological innovation, and diversity of opinion in journalism, as Lina Khan explains:
The federal government plays a critical role in protecting free markets, the free press, and the right to privacy. The government can work on behalf of consumers as well as technology entrepreneurs. It can work support workers issuing rules against non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Enforcement of antitrust, consumer protection, and fair labor laws is central to the work of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
In recent months FTC Chair Lina Khan as been interviewed by Senator Bernie Sanders, John Stewart, Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times, and Faiz Shakir of More Perfect Union.
Lina Khan has proven to be a strong advocate for aggressively applying antitrust laws against large firms in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, food manufacturing, and distribution. Under Lina Khan’s leadership, the FTC has been addressing economic injustice arising from corporate power in America. The FTC has been especially active in confronting BigTech firms, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google.
Check out Khan’s presentation at the Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research: Is Antitrust Policy Good for Innovation?.
Republicans will be using inflation and the economy to attack Democratic positions. Lina Khan provides the counterpunch.
High prices are in part due to industrial concentration. Firms with few competitors have market power and can raise prices at will. The economy benefits from fair, competitive markets.
The FTC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) play key roles in promoting competition and protecting consumers.
Common executive policy is to respect the independence of the FTC and DOJ. That has been the approach of the Biden-Harris administration, and we might expect a similar approach by a Harris-Walz administration.
Regarding the economy and inflation, Lina Khan may well be the Democrats’ secret weapon.
Contemporary Thinking about Regulation #
- Khan, Lina M. 2017, January. “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.” Yale Law Journal. 126 (3): 710–805. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021. Available online.