Jul 28, 2023·edited Jul 28, 2023Liked by Matt Stoller
This reminds me of the time when Trump pointed out how Germany got most of their energy from Russia and had the audacity to wonder if such a thing might become a problem if there ever was a geopolitical conflict with Russia. The oh so super duper smart credentialed people blasted him for even asking that question. How dare he! Now what was curious was they never explained how he was wrong or tried to reassure anyone. They just were mad that he asked the question. You are not allowed to ask questions like that. Note, Trump is not some kind of super genius, he was just asking a question most of us would ask while listening to a trade deal and looking at a map. As far as the super duper smart neoliberal expert class is concerned you do not ask questions, do any research, and take all policy as a matter of faith like it was some manner of religious doctrine. Otherwise you would just be a stupid peasant and don't deserve your place in the "meritocracy".
Not a fan of Trump here, but I very much appreciated his initial reaction to the merger of Raytheon and United Technologies. It's too bad the merger was eventually allowed to proceed though.
Not a fan of Biden here, but I very much appreciated his administration continuing antitrust suits including several from the previous administration as well as the increased enforcements efforts under his FTC.
Outstanding, your newsletter - and video segments, like the one the other day on Breaking Points, recapping the chocolate oligopoly - are communicating so well how fundamental monopoly power is to what ails us. We learned a lot during the pandemic - or did we? It is so clear that if you really start threatening the powerful, you will feel their wrath, like that old Gandhi quote (apocryphal or not). Bring it on, but let's get prepared. My friends are starting to find your newsletter interesting (!)
Great piece Matt. I live in New Hampshire and our two Democratic Senators almost never speak or write to their constituents and when they do it is never about these issues. Same with my Democratic Congressman. Oh, if there is a ‘win’ they’ll try to chip off a piece of credit but no one spends ANY political capital to inform, educate, motivate, persuade or move their constituents. If they hide, rock no boats, make no waves then no one will criticize them. And this is all too common around the country.
No need to use the party label Paul, I live in Missouri and my two Republican Senators behave just the same way as does my GOP Congresswoman. Party has become irrelevant, it's about who's providing butter for the Congressional bread.
I wrote to Sen. Hassan about something where I have considerable professional expertise and received a reply that was so massively stupid that I voted for one of the Libertarians who was running against her. (Because, of course the Libertarian party in NH is fractured.) However, I feel the alternate-party vote was not a wasted vote.
How the hell did Matt Stoller get so damn smart and members of Congress get to be such damn fools.
Well, one is that most members of Congress are both too old and have been in Congress way way too long. Also, most are too cozy with big business. Why else would Congress downgrade breaking up the empires of health insurers and PMBs?
People, please send copies of Matt Stoller's article to your Congressional Representatives, I will, and tell them to pay attention!
Seems like Biden's core instincts are ok, but there's lots of Clinton/Obama era people in his administration that think they know better, so we get some incoherent messages.
Trump and Biden both screwed themselves big time with the people they decided to or were told to surround themselves with. You start to do anything the big wigs of your party don't like and all the sudden the people who are supposedly working for you are now undermining you at every opportunity. I don't know how this election is going to turn out, but going forward the populists on the left and right need to put pressure on cabinet appointments. Otherwise we will keep getting John Bolton's and Janet Yellen's infesting the White House.
I have to respectfully disagree with you, BD. If you take a look at Biden's 50-year career in Congress and the vice-presidency you will see that he has been instrumental in creating many of the problems we confront today in our political economy.
For instance, for all of his (limited) attempts to relieve some student debt, he was responsible for aggravating the situation by making student debt non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.
He excoriated Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and look what that has gotten us, a conservative Supreme Court that only pays attention to the desires of business, not the desires of the majority of Americans.
You can find many other examples.
I would argue that he is fulfilling his promise that "Nothing fundamental will change", despite the successes of the reawakened antitrust movement. The judges will be the final arbiters of how much progress antitrust makes and Biden has done nothing to address the business-friendly judiciary.
I'm only looking at his Presidential term. Prior to that there's plenty to complain about.
And we're talking relative gradients. It's not like Biden has been excellent, we're just comparing him to the last few administrations that were pretty disastrous.
The judiciary (and some other areas) are a blind spot. They certainly move too slow. But it's mild progress.
As always Matt, you get right to the heart of the matter with insightful details. Our Congress has helped destroy our economy over the last 40 years. The massive transfer of wealth to the elites has and will continue to make our job to beat back the greed and power very difficult. The entrenched elites will not go easily.
Our fight is required through our knowledge that any failure on our part will lead to a dystopian future fir our children.
! Wow ! best article yet. Unfortunately Biden's Green agenda enriches China. Re-shoring chip production needs to co-exist with incentivizing our solar panel production.
This is a lot to read and digest… will keep reading..
But..the bottom line and take away is that:
1. We have trans-national corporations that will struggle to reverse and decommit from the global supply chains and markets .
2. We have senior officials who only think about global free trade as the future not a return to a more secure local trade bloc. We have messed up with global free trade for almost 40 years and its sure going to take time to reverse…
3. We are over committed in most of the western nations to the goals of NetZero where as the “rest” is free to get on with economy building and supporting it with traditional power sources…. …… So NetZero will be a huge distraction and a real threat.
We need a strong political resolve to stay on track with firm policy to reshore our industrial capacity.
I think a Trumpian leadership would do far better.. roll on the next election.
You knew this country was heading towards economic suicide when we allowed foreign countries to dump their steel exports at an economic loss to destroy US domestic steel production. Also at almost the same time we allowed domestic steel producers to export the making of domestic steel to foreign countries especially Japan. We allowed the domestic destruction of the foundation of manufacturing, steel. These actions by US steel companies became the playbook for domestic manufacturing companies to destroy worker unions and the communities surrounding these manufacturing companies.
Thank God there's someone who understands this "stuff" - and, explains it perfectly. May the truth reflect a rising tide that lifts all boats - in spite of the blockades.
Biden has been in the DC shark pit for 50 plus years! He'll go the way he can to get reelected. He is from Delaware. A very corporate friendly state.
We pulled this off in the 1930's as Matt said but we really got it going when WWII started. Between FDR policies and then the war the economic and political elites were down and out for the next 30 years until they finally re grouped in the 70's under Bork, Friedman and company. Using lost war in Vietnam, Russians are winning, Japan is eating our lunch, Nixon a crook, Germany is better than us (of course Germany and Japan are going to kick your butt, when you give them totally all the advantages in trade rules for them to be successful and they finance these businesses thru their government, yes, they're going to rule over our businesses, are you idiots here?) They all completely panicked here, and this was cover to convert back to previous economic policies of the Gilded Age.
We have a government that is dysfunctional and always has been. Was set up to be this way from the start. I don't expect much from them.
We, the taxpayers need to fund the future technologies thru us the government financing these businesses by hiring venture fund type leaders to run these different funds. This will also keep the corruption to a minimum hopefully. Keep the money away from the politicians. Example - robotics, bio genetics, AI, machine learning, space stations and weapons, cures for cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ect All the new technologies we need to dictate into the future, so we don't become ruled by China or anyone else. 60-40 percent splits. We the Government get 60. We financed them. The fund manager of each of these funds gets the normal 20/2 profit structure. The fund makes money, and we make $$$ This would get us away from the bond market (monied class loves this market though, easy rent money than can live off of). We could even probably get to where we only have taxes to slow the economy down when it gets to super-heated. Also, free us up from Wall Street and the bankers too. Main Street would thrive here. Also, who bales these guys out every time the bankers or wall street belly's up?! Yes, we do. That sucks.
But Matt, while the "pandemic" was ongoing, and we waited and hoped that you would speak up. Given everything you already knew about big money and pharma, etc. You did not.
Although this is not the main topic of this newsletter, it is probably a good idea to note that we haven't learned our lesson with respect to public health.
To the "old guard" this is the perfect time to claw back biomedical research and public health. Never mind that millions of people have been sidelined from the workforce due to long COVID. Who cares? They will probably die young and be less of a bother? Senior citizens? HEY! The sooner we get rid of them, the better off we will be! They just consume and contribute nothing in return! The immunosuppressed or people with autoimmune disorders? OMG, it costs a fortune just to get a diagnosis for them. Then we have to treat them as well! Letting COVID take them it is doing the world a favor!
This may sound like an exaggeration. But sadly, I don't feel that it is. What is really so gobsmacking dumb is that this is so damn short-sighted.
What happens when millions of people are sidelined from the labor force? Salaries have to go up! You'd think that might bother them. And speaking of long-term vulnerability to COVID, most of the "old guard" are...well...OLD! Their wealth can only protect them so far from a highly contagious infectious disease that has high morbidity and mortality for people over 60. I'm just sayin'....
Very good summary of the state of play of our current politics. I think the old existential question we lefties always pose when trying to understand our opponents, "are they stupid or evil?" needs to be updated beyond the answer of "yes, both!"
It's become clear to me that we've had two consecutive administrations that are stupid, evil, and schizophrenic, too!
The factional in-fighting within administrations is new, and also represents progress of a sort (previously, we weren't strong enough to mount a challenge). However, it's very hard for us peons to see clearly what's happening.
This reminds me of the time when Trump pointed out how Germany got most of their energy from Russia and had the audacity to wonder if such a thing might become a problem if there ever was a geopolitical conflict with Russia. The oh so super duper smart credentialed people blasted him for even asking that question. How dare he! Now what was curious was they never explained how he was wrong or tried to reassure anyone. They just were mad that he asked the question. You are not allowed to ask questions like that. Note, Trump is not some kind of super genius, he was just asking a question most of us would ask while listening to a trade deal and looking at a map. As far as the super duper smart neoliberal expert class is concerned you do not ask questions, do any research, and take all policy as a matter of faith like it was some manner of religious doctrine. Otherwise you would just be a stupid peasant and don't deserve your place in the "meritocracy".
Not a fan of Trump here, but I very much appreciated his initial reaction to the merger of Raytheon and United Technologies. It's too bad the merger was eventually allowed to proceed though.
Not a fan of Biden here, but I very much appreciated his administration continuing antitrust suits including several from the previous administration as well as the increased enforcements efforts under his FTC.
Get used to it.. same group think and arrogant suppresion to dare to talk about Climate change mitigation and all these stupid NetZero plans...
Yeah don’t ask about tobin taxes at a value add tax lecture either.they get really wound up
Outstanding, your newsletter - and video segments, like the one the other day on Breaking Points, recapping the chocolate oligopoly - are communicating so well how fundamental monopoly power is to what ails us. We learned a lot during the pandemic - or did we? It is so clear that if you really start threatening the powerful, you will feel their wrath, like that old Gandhi quote (apocryphal or not). Bring it on, but let's get prepared. My friends are starting to find your newsletter interesting (!)
Great piece Matt. I live in New Hampshire and our two Democratic Senators almost never speak or write to their constituents and when they do it is never about these issues. Same with my Democratic Congressman. Oh, if there is a ‘win’ they’ll try to chip off a piece of credit but no one spends ANY political capital to inform, educate, motivate, persuade or move their constituents. If they hide, rock no boats, make no waves then no one will criticize them. And this is all too common around the country.
No need to use the party label Paul, I live in Missouri and my two Republican Senators behave just the same way as does my GOP Congresswoman. Party has become irrelevant, it's about who's providing butter for the Congressional bread.
I wrote to Sen. Hassan about something where I have considerable professional expertise and received a reply that was so massively stupid that I voted for one of the Libertarians who was running against her. (Because, of course the Libertarian party in NH is fractured.) However, I feel the alternate-party vote was not a wasted vote.
Ask about the issue at a town hall
You mean the town hall meetings about which we never get informed :/
How the hell did Matt Stoller get so damn smart and members of Congress get to be such damn fools.
Well, one is that most members of Congress are both too old and have been in Congress way way too long. Also, most are too cozy with big business. Why else would Congress downgrade breaking up the empires of health insurers and PMBs?
People, please send copies of Matt Stoller's article to your Congressional Representatives, I will, and tell them to pay attention!
Sounds like a plan....Will do.
Seems like Biden's core instincts are ok, but there's lots of Clinton/Obama era people in his administration that think they know better, so we get some incoherent messages.
Trump and Biden both screwed themselves big time with the people they decided to or were told to surround themselves with. You start to do anything the big wigs of your party don't like and all the sudden the people who are supposedly working for you are now undermining you at every opportunity. I don't know how this election is going to turn out, but going forward the populists on the left and right need to put pressure on cabinet appointments. Otherwise we will keep getting John Bolton's and Janet Yellen's infesting the White House.
I have to respectfully disagree with you, BD. If you take a look at Biden's 50-year career in Congress and the vice-presidency you will see that he has been instrumental in creating many of the problems we confront today in our political economy.
For instance, for all of his (limited) attempts to relieve some student debt, he was responsible for aggravating the situation by making student debt non-dischargeable in bankruptcy.
He excoriated Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and look what that has gotten us, a conservative Supreme Court that only pays attention to the desires of business, not the desires of the majority of Americans.
You can find many other examples.
I would argue that he is fulfilling his promise that "Nothing fundamental will change", despite the successes of the reawakened antitrust movement. The judges will be the final arbiters of how much progress antitrust makes and Biden has done nothing to address the business-friendly judiciary.
Stay safe.
I'm only looking at his Presidential term. Prior to that there's plenty to complain about.
And we're talking relative gradients. It's not like Biden has been excellent, we're just comparing him to the last few administrations that were pretty disastrous.
The judiciary (and some other areas) are a blind spot. They certainly move too slow. But it's mild progress.
Fair enough.
As always Matt, you get right to the heart of the matter with insightful details. Our Congress has helped destroy our economy over the last 40 years. The massive transfer of wealth to the elites has and will continue to make our job to beat back the greed and power very difficult. The entrenched elites will not go easily.
Our fight is required through our knowledge that any failure on our part will lead to a dystopian future fir our children.
! Wow ! best article yet. Unfortunately Biden's Green agenda enriches China. Re-shoring chip production needs to co-exist with incentivizing our solar panel production.
They're not forgetting, they're bragging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu_iFS-UY8&t=51s
Matt
This is a lot to read and digest… will keep reading..
But..the bottom line and take away is that:
1. We have trans-national corporations that will struggle to reverse and decommit from the global supply chains and markets .
2. We have senior officials who only think about global free trade as the future not a return to a more secure local trade bloc. We have messed up with global free trade for almost 40 years and its sure going to take time to reverse…
3. We are over committed in most of the western nations to the goals of NetZero where as the “rest” is free to get on with economy building and supporting it with traditional power sources…. …… So NetZero will be a huge distraction and a real threat.
We need a strong political resolve to stay on track with firm policy to reshore our industrial capacity.
I think a Trumpian leadership would do far better.. roll on the next election.
More in my new book Take Back Manufacturing… https://nigelsouthwayauthor.com/about-the-book/
You knew this country was heading towards economic suicide when we allowed foreign countries to dump their steel exports at an economic loss to destroy US domestic steel production. Also at almost the same time we allowed domestic steel producers to export the making of domestic steel to foreign countries especially Japan. We allowed the domestic destruction of the foundation of manufacturing, steel. These actions by US steel companies became the playbook for domestic manufacturing companies to destroy worker unions and the communities surrounding these manufacturing companies.
Thank God there's someone who understands this "stuff" - and, explains it perfectly. May the truth reflect a rising tide that lifts all boats - in spite of the blockades.
Biden has been in the DC shark pit for 50 plus years! He'll go the way he can to get reelected. He is from Delaware. A very corporate friendly state.
We pulled this off in the 1930's as Matt said but we really got it going when WWII started. Between FDR policies and then the war the economic and political elites were down and out for the next 30 years until they finally re grouped in the 70's under Bork, Friedman and company. Using lost war in Vietnam, Russians are winning, Japan is eating our lunch, Nixon a crook, Germany is better than us (of course Germany and Japan are going to kick your butt, when you give them totally all the advantages in trade rules for them to be successful and they finance these businesses thru their government, yes, they're going to rule over our businesses, are you idiots here?) They all completely panicked here, and this was cover to convert back to previous economic policies of the Gilded Age.
We have a government that is dysfunctional and always has been. Was set up to be this way from the start. I don't expect much from them.
We, the taxpayers need to fund the future technologies thru us the government financing these businesses by hiring venture fund type leaders to run these different funds. This will also keep the corruption to a minimum hopefully. Keep the money away from the politicians. Example - robotics, bio genetics, AI, machine learning, space stations and weapons, cures for cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, ect All the new technologies we need to dictate into the future, so we don't become ruled by China or anyone else. 60-40 percent splits. We the Government get 60. We financed them. The fund manager of each of these funds gets the normal 20/2 profit structure. The fund makes money, and we make $$$ This would get us away from the bond market (monied class loves this market though, easy rent money than can live off of). We could even probably get to where we only have taxes to slow the economy down when it gets to super-heated. Also, free us up from Wall Street and the bankers too. Main Street would thrive here. Also, who bales these guys out every time the bankers or wall street belly's up?! Yes, we do. That sucks.
But Matt, while the "pandemic" was ongoing, and we waited and hoped that you would speak up. Given everything you already knew about big money and pharma, etc. You did not.
Although this is not the main topic of this newsletter, it is probably a good idea to note that we haven't learned our lesson with respect to public health.
To the "old guard" this is the perfect time to claw back biomedical research and public health. Never mind that millions of people have been sidelined from the workforce due to long COVID. Who cares? They will probably die young and be less of a bother? Senior citizens? HEY! The sooner we get rid of them, the better off we will be! They just consume and contribute nothing in return! The immunosuppressed or people with autoimmune disorders? OMG, it costs a fortune just to get a diagnosis for them. Then we have to treat them as well! Letting COVID take them it is doing the world a favor!
This may sound like an exaggeration. But sadly, I don't feel that it is. What is really so gobsmacking dumb is that this is so damn short-sighted.
What happens when millions of people are sidelined from the labor force? Salaries have to go up! You'd think that might bother them. And speaking of long-term vulnerability to COVID, most of the "old guard" are...well...OLD! Their wealth can only protect them so far from a highly contagious infectious disease that has high morbidity and mortality for people over 60. I'm just sayin'....
Matt, who's considering, and with what effect, the limits to growth?
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-06-01/the-limits-to-growth-after-50-years-more-relevant-than-ever/
Very good summary of the state of play of our current politics. I think the old existential question we lefties always pose when trying to understand our opponents, "are they stupid or evil?" needs to be updated beyond the answer of "yes, both!"
It's become clear to me that we've had two consecutive administrations that are stupid, evil, and schizophrenic, too!
The factional in-fighting within administrations is new, and also represents progress of a sort (previously, we weren't strong enough to mount a challenge). However, it's very hard for us peons to see clearly what's happening.
Keep up the good work, Matt!