Conference Series | Busting the Big Myths on Anti-Monopoly Reform
Watch three hourlong conversations about the opportunities created by stronger anti-monopoly law and enforcement ft. Sen. Klobuchar, Gen. Clark, AAG Kanter, Tim Wu & many others.
Conference Details
There is growing debate about whether making anti-monopoly laws and enforcement stronger may trigger unintended consequences.
Open Markets Institute assembled lawmakers, law enforcers, and other experts for a discussion series that asked: Are fears about the unintended consequences of strengthening anti-monopoly laws and enforcement legitimate, or do the opportunities and benefits vastly outweigh the risks?
Myth 1: Antitrust & National Security
Opening Keynote Discussion
Moderator: Rana Foroohar is a global business columnist and an associate editor at the Financial Times. She is also CNN’s global economic analyst. She has written Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business (2016) and Don’t Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles and All of Us (2019). She also serves on Open Markets’ advisory board. [@RanaForoohar]
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) became the first woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate in 2006, and now serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. Her most recent book, Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age, details strategies to create and strengthen antitrust policies. [@SenAmyKlobuchar]
Gen. Wesley Clark is a retired four-star general of the U.S. Army where he last served as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. He later launched a consulting firm that specializes in business development, alternative energy, and corporate and national security. He is the author of Waging Modern War and Winning Modern Wars. [@GeneralClark]
Following Panel
Moderator: David Solimini is the director of strategic communications at the Stimson Center, which promotes international security, shared prosperity, and justice through applied research and analysis. He has more than 15 years of experience in policy relevant to national security and foreign affairs. He specializes in organizational transformations and crisis management. [@CommsDirector]
Richard Andres is a professor of national security strategy at the U.S. National War College, specializing in cyber and information conflict. He has led strategy development teams for the Bush and Obama White Houses, various combatant commands, and other government and private organizations. [@RichardBAndres]
Rose Jackson directs the Democracy & Tech Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. She is an entrepreneur and former diplomat with more than 15 years of experience in human rights advocacy and levering technology for social impact around the world. [@Rosejackson3]
Myth 2: Antitrust & Innovation
Tim Wu is the Special Assistant to the President for technology and competition policy. He most recently was a professor at Columbia University law school. He previously served as senior enforcement counsel to the New York Attorney General and a senior advisor at the Federal Trade Commission. Wu was also a law clerk for Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court and Richard Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Wu is a graduate of McGill University and Harvard Law School. He’s written extensively about competition policy, especially threats posted by Big Tech. His books include The Curse of Bigness, The Attention Merchants, and The Master Switch. [@superwuster]
Following Panel
Edward Ongweso Jr. is a labor and technology reporter for Motherboard, VICE News’ technology section, focused on app-based gig labor platforms, antitrust and anti-monopoly law, labor movements, capital markets, and surveillance technologies. At Hampshire College, his 2019 thesis focused on Uber’s business model and featured an ethnography of app-based ride-hail and taxi drivers in New York City. He co-hosts a podcast on technology and political economy called “This Machine Kills.” [@bigblackjacobin]
Angela Hoover is co-founder and CEO of AndiSearch, a free and anonymous search engine that is ad-free and fights spam. AndiSearch’s overarching mission is "to unbreak the Internet,” and its immediate aim is to provide search results superior to those of its competitors. Hoover worked with Microsoft on Azure and founded a travel influencer startup. She has a background in site compliance, cloud computing, e-commerce, and teaching business. [@MiamiAngela]
Ben Gross is the chief strategic officer for MediaLab, which uses artificial intelligence to enrich social networking, messaging, entertainment, and music. Previously he was chief strategy officer and general counsel for Genius, which MediaLab acquired in September. Gross has written about Google’s ruinous power for The Washington Post. He graduated from Yale Law School and now lectures at Columbia Law School.
Gina Schaefer started with a single Ace Hardware and now is CEO of over 13 stores in the greater Washington area. She develops urban markets, supports small businesses, and helps women to succeed in the hardware industry. She has focused on the "Return to Main Street" movement in the D.C. region, to promote “Shop Local” campaigns and community revitalization in urban areas. Schaefer is a member of Small Business Rising and serves on the board of the Institute for Local Self Reliance. [@Hardware_Gina]
Myth 3: Antitrust & Consumers
Opening Keynote
Jonathan Kanter is the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, confirmed in November. Long an advocate for antitrust enforcement and competition policy, he founded a law firm dedicated to promoting antitrust enforcement. After earning his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, he became an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition. Kanter previously spoke at an Open Markets conference about the impact of platform monopolies on local news. [@JusticeATR]
Following Panel
Moderator: Julia Angwin in 2018 founded The Markup, a nonprofit news organization that investigates the impacts of technology on society. She is the author of Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance” and Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America. [@JuliaAngwin]
Bruce Schneier labeled a “security guru” by The Economist, has authored more than a dozen books and produces the “Crypto-Gram” newsletter. Schneier is a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and an advisory board member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. [@schneierblog]
Dina Srinivasan is a fellow with the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University and has worked on the antitrust case against Google filed by a coalition of U.S. State Attorneys General. Her 2019 research paper, “Why Google Dominates Advertising Markets,” showed that Google distorts electronically traded ad markets by engaging in conduct that lawmakers normally prohibit. [@DinaSrinivasan]
Rakeen Mabud is chief economist and managing director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative. Previously with the TIME’S UP Foundation and the Roosevelt Institute, she served as an economic policy adviser in the Obama administration. She holds a doctorate from Harvard in government. [@rakeen_mabud]
Barry Lynn is executive director of the Open Markets Institute, founded in 2018. Previously, he spent 15 years at the New America Foundation, researching and writing about monopoly power. He is the author of a trilogy of books about corporate power, most recently, “Liberty from All Masters: The New American Autocracy vs. the Will of the People.” Lynn’s writings on the political and economic effects of the extreme consolidation of power in the U.S. have influenced the thinking of policymakers and antitrust professionals on both sides of the Atlantic. He was formerly with The Associated Press and The Agence France Presse in South America and the Caribbean, and he was executive editor of Global Business Magazine. [@barryclynn]
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