Appointing Khan as chair was good politics and good policy on Biden’s part. He’s doubling down on a popular nominee, and he’s putting one of the country’s most extraordinary leaders in a position where she can directly improve the economy.
Appointing Lina Khan May Be the Best Thing Joe Biden Has Done
If you didn’t understand why two billionaire donors want Harris to replace Lina Khan this explains it in detail.
The chair of the FTC is Lina Khan — perhaps the most effective FTC chair since Michael Pertschuk ran the agency in the late 1970s.
No wonder the MSM and big tech were on a mission against Biden. It’s no surprise that for every story about something positive about the Biden- Harris administration the majority were negative stories.
Friends,
It’s rare that a presidential candidate is delivered an opportunity on a platter to enunciate what she’s for and against.
But Kamala Harris has now been delivered one — and it’s a silver platter, no less.
First, some background. Yesterday, in a stunner of a decision, Judge Amit Mehta of the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search.
Khan’s FTC shares antitrust jurisdiction with the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, which brought the suit against Google.
So, billionaire Democratic donors are targeting Khan — and doing so publicly.
It’s rare that major donors make the quid pro quo’s they want for their donations known publicly instead of doing so quietly through campaign bigwigs and senior White House staff.
Why is Hoffman so negative about Khan?
The U.S. government had accused Google of illegally cementing its dominance in search, partly by paying other companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to have Google automatically handle search queries on their smartphones and web browsers.
Judge Mehta agreed. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he ruled.
The ruling is a bombshell that will affect all other government antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech. And there are many under the Biden-Harris administration.
One of the major lawsuits underway is against Amazon. Last September, the FTC sued Amazon — alleging that it uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to maintain its monopoly power. The FTC said Amazon stopped rivals and sellers from lowering prices, overcharged sellers, and stifled innovation.
The FTC is also suing Meta, accusing it of creating a monopoly in social media by buying potential competitors Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC is also challenging Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard and is investigating Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI. The FTC has reportedly opened multiple investigations involving subsidiaries of Barry Diller’s AIC.
I have to give credit to Biden for making such an important pick. Biden deserves so much more credit than he will ever get even from his own party.
If the Harris Administration does anything but keep Kahn it will be alarming. We have to break up the monopolies. I know first hand Amazon is ruthless. All of these big tech firms need to be reined in. I agree with Reich this is a an opportunity delivered on a silver platter.
Read both articles. The. Links are in the body of the story. There short.