In an extraordinary week, the government blocked several mergers, banned non-competes, restructured our communications environment, passed a Federal privacy law, and regulated airlines.
In free enterprise capitalism, it is definitional that there is ease of entry and exit among both buyers and sellers. For the last 60 years, America has moved rapidly into crony capitalism, leaving free enterprise in the dust. But for the last three years, the Biden administration has been doing yeoman work to make our form of capitalism a little bit freer, and a little less infected with cronyism.
This is good news in a week when they also voted for $95 billion in more war funding and massively increased the governments power to spy on Americans. Maybe, this is their way of 'throwing us a bone' while they take the power to jail us without a warrant and ban 'wrong think'
Matt … open this post up to non-subscribers so we can forward it. It is a powerful political message about the role of government that needs to reach a wider audience.
I truly appreciate the optimism here and the rare focus on good actions of government. Unfortunately I fear the $90 billion of taxpayer money just approved for unpopular foreign forever wars and the blatant disregard for the 4th amendment renewing 702 are more consequential and damaging than the positives highlighted here.
Too bad the remnants of that Democratic Party represented by the hand bill at the end of the article was auctioned off by Bill Clinton. Obama comfirmed that Party is dead.
I'm pleased to see the senate force TikTok to divest from Chinese control. See? Every once in a blue moon, they do play nicely together, and get a good thing done.
Also, the president creating tariffs to protect domestic production of steel and solar panels? Very long term thinking, and good for American business, and America.
I am so grateful that the government is doing something to regulate the airline industry. In December Lufthansa which is in a Star Alliance with United Airlines, did several things that have made me not want to fly with them again. One, I found out that flights from 3 German cities to Frankfurt are regularly late, and so one would miss the last flight to the US if one cannot make it on time. Then, they lost both my daughter's luggage and mine because it could not make it on to the same planes as we were on, because we could run. We have no real way of tracking the suitcase, because they contract that out to someone else and have no one who can contact them. My daughter's suitcase was lost on December 22, it arrived in Chicago 5 weeks later, but we had told LH that she would be back in Germany in the beginning of January and not to send it to Chicago. As it is, there has been no person we could contact at LH to get this straightened out. We have gotten nothing but the run-around. However, after calling them numerous times, and writing complaints to what is supposed to be customer service, but is really just a place to call where they tell you they cannot do anything, I did file a complaint with the Dept of Transportation. It is that complaint that eventually led them to contact me this past week. I also have to complain that they did not provide me with a meal in either O'hare or Munich when I had to wait in both airports for over 9 hours due to my flights being delayed. In one because I wanted to fly with my suitcase, which was not supposed to make it onto my connecting flight because we came in so late and then made it onto the plane that I did not get on because I did not want to be without it. They also only pay 50% of your clothing replacement costs, and 100% or toiletries, but we filed our receipts with them, also an arduous time consuming process and have not been reimbursed yet. It is now April, this happened in December, so you can see the timeline. We have never gotten my daughter's suitcase back. We cannot get anyone at Lufthansa to help us. I got my suitcase because I did not believe anything LH told me at that point. So, I am hoping that the US enforcing this with airlines includes foreign airlines that fly into the USA. Now they want my daughter to fill out a power of attorney form before they will even discuss our 2 cases with me. Why they need to do that when she is a legal adult, is beyond me other than that I filed the complaint. They also insist on POA for submitting receipts for someone else as well. It is crazy and a lot of nuisance to keep people from claiming a refund. A monopoly out of control. By the way, they were ranked the best Airline in Europe. A woman told me that it is because of their size. The number of complaints they get relative to their size is what determines this ranking. Well, KLM has better service, so I don't think LH should have this status. Everything about this has been difficult, not easy. I am so grateful to see this law passed and hope it has an effect.
The non-compete decision is truly incredible. I have always understood the idea of a non-compete for the C-Suite, particularly when there is some sort of compensation (or clawback) tied to it. But I have seen so many people in their 20s and 30s trapped in decent paying (but not highly paid) jobs with restrictions that were so open ended that they'd effectively have to start over if they left. What's crazier is the length of many non-competes. We're not talking three months, many of them have 18 - 24 month tails - for junior to midlevel employees!
The more restrictive the non-compete, the more commoditized the industry. Companies who have lost their "moat" (or never had one) use tools like non-competes as a means to maintain their margins. It's sick.
More broadly - the prevalence of non-competes speaks to a much larger issue of the over-legalization of everything in America. There is a time and a place for legal contracts and legal language, but somewhere along the way these documents became: a.) much more commonplace; b.) much more all-encompassing and, frankly, insane in how they're written; and c.) updated with great regularity (and if you don't accept the updates, you can't use a product or service you already use.)
I'm not a huge gamer these days, but it's hard to even turn on a Playstation game without having to read and sign-off on a huge Privacy Policy. And they're updated all the time. Wtf? I just want to zone out for a bit!
Airlines are already pushing back that there should be “carve outs” for delays or cancellations that “75% aren’t their fault” due to weather or FAA/ATC mandated ground stops and that they will have to charge more now for fully refundable tickets. Trying to think of any other industry that doesn’t have to provide refunds for services they cannot render.
The article is informative and, on balance, favorable to the position of banning (most) non competes. The trade groups will fight this in court--indeed, they want to challenge the very authority of the FTC to ban non competes--but the sensible position is to find ways to adapt. And for companies looking to adapt, the article contains a list of the benefits accruing to firms who work with their employees rather than trying to strap them down via adhesive contracts.
It will be many years before these 'extraordinary 'changes'' actually happen. And by then, even if DIMS are elected they will renege on very quickly. Too much for the people is moving much too slowly. It's all about wars, death and destruction and raking in $billions for that for the elites and of course let's not forget BIGPHARMA's $billions as well. That is if WWIII doesn't commence...
I disagree entirely with your assessment. In the spirit of Thomas Sowell, our problem in this country is not-not enough government or governing as you put it; but that we have way too much governing. What will be the cost of all this? Less flights? Layoffs because of mandatory OT pay? Something more sinister than TIK TOK emerging from that pile of dung. No-one ever considers the cost of a NEW regulation. As Jared Dillion puts it “There is no problem in existence that can’t be solved by FREE markets.” Remember, there are no solutions in life, only tradeoffs; and when you trade free will or market driven price discovery for more government regulations, you end up where we are today, with sky rocketing equity and asset prices. Tariffs only hurt consumers, they do nothing to stop the offending nation who dumps their excess goods on our shores. Add to it higher prices for almost everything; we will soon have shortages of almost everything. Who will the boogieman be then?
There is no concern that FTC regulation could lead to blackmailing of small businesses by big business buying over their employees and the information they are holding? Getting paid for changing jobs could not be 'bribes', since it would be the very point of the freedom to choose employer.
In free enterprise capitalism, it is definitional that there is ease of entry and exit among both buyers and sellers. For the last 60 years, America has moved rapidly into crony capitalism, leaving free enterprise in the dust. But for the last three years, the Biden administration has been doing yeoman work to make our form of capitalism a little bit freer, and a little less infected with cronyism.
Forgot about Biden Annuity Junk Fee initiative ie Fiduciary rule will save 401(k) investors $billions
https://commonsense401kproject.com/2023/11/05/annuity-junk-fees-in-current-401k-plans/
This is good news in a week when they also voted for $95 billion in more war funding and massively increased the governments power to spy on Americans. Maybe, this is their way of 'throwing us a bone' while they take the power to jail us without a warrant and ban 'wrong think'
Matt … open this post up to non-subscribers so we can forward it. It is a powerful political message about the role of government that needs to reach a wider audience.
I truly appreciate the optimism here and the rare focus on good actions of government. Unfortunately I fear the $90 billion of taxpayer money just approved for unpopular foreign forever wars and the blatant disregard for the 4th amendment renewing 702 are more consequential and damaging than the positives highlighted here.
Too bad the remnants of that Democratic Party represented by the hand bill at the end of the article was auctioned off by Bill Clinton. Obama comfirmed that Party is dead.
I'm pleased to see the senate force TikTok to divest from Chinese control. See? Every once in a blue moon, they do play nicely together, and get a good thing done.
Also, the president creating tariffs to protect domestic production of steel and solar panels? Very long term thinking, and good for American business, and America.
I am so grateful that the government is doing something to regulate the airline industry. In December Lufthansa which is in a Star Alliance with United Airlines, did several things that have made me not want to fly with them again. One, I found out that flights from 3 German cities to Frankfurt are regularly late, and so one would miss the last flight to the US if one cannot make it on time. Then, they lost both my daughter's luggage and mine because it could not make it on to the same planes as we were on, because we could run. We have no real way of tracking the suitcase, because they contract that out to someone else and have no one who can contact them. My daughter's suitcase was lost on December 22, it arrived in Chicago 5 weeks later, but we had told LH that she would be back in Germany in the beginning of January and not to send it to Chicago. As it is, there has been no person we could contact at LH to get this straightened out. We have gotten nothing but the run-around. However, after calling them numerous times, and writing complaints to what is supposed to be customer service, but is really just a place to call where they tell you they cannot do anything, I did file a complaint with the Dept of Transportation. It is that complaint that eventually led them to contact me this past week. I also have to complain that they did not provide me with a meal in either O'hare or Munich when I had to wait in both airports for over 9 hours due to my flights being delayed. In one because I wanted to fly with my suitcase, which was not supposed to make it onto my connecting flight because we came in so late and then made it onto the plane that I did not get on because I did not want to be without it. They also only pay 50% of your clothing replacement costs, and 100% or toiletries, but we filed our receipts with them, also an arduous time consuming process and have not been reimbursed yet. It is now April, this happened in December, so you can see the timeline. We have never gotten my daughter's suitcase back. We cannot get anyone at Lufthansa to help us. I got my suitcase because I did not believe anything LH told me at that point. So, I am hoping that the US enforcing this with airlines includes foreign airlines that fly into the USA. Now they want my daughter to fill out a power of attorney form before they will even discuss our 2 cases with me. Why they need to do that when she is a legal adult, is beyond me other than that I filed the complaint. They also insist on POA for submitting receipts for someone else as well. It is crazy and a lot of nuisance to keep people from claiming a refund. A monopoly out of control. By the way, they were ranked the best Airline in Europe. A woman told me that it is because of their size. The number of complaints they get relative to their size is what determines this ranking. Well, KLM has better service, so I don't think LH should have this status. Everything about this has been difficult, not easy. I am so grateful to see this law passed and hope it has an effect.
The non-compete decision is truly incredible. I have always understood the idea of a non-compete for the C-Suite, particularly when there is some sort of compensation (or clawback) tied to it. But I have seen so many people in their 20s and 30s trapped in decent paying (but not highly paid) jobs with restrictions that were so open ended that they'd effectively have to start over if they left. What's crazier is the length of many non-competes. We're not talking three months, many of them have 18 - 24 month tails - for junior to midlevel employees!
The more restrictive the non-compete, the more commoditized the industry. Companies who have lost their "moat" (or never had one) use tools like non-competes as a means to maintain their margins. It's sick.
More broadly - the prevalence of non-competes speaks to a much larger issue of the over-legalization of everything in America. There is a time and a place for legal contracts and legal language, but somewhere along the way these documents became: a.) much more commonplace; b.) much more all-encompassing and, frankly, insane in how they're written; and c.) updated with great regularity (and if you don't accept the updates, you can't use a product or service you already use.)
I'm not a huge gamer these days, but it's hard to even turn on a Playstation game without having to read and sign-off on a huge Privacy Policy. And they're updated all the time. Wtf? I just want to zone out for a bit!
Airlines are already pushing back that there should be “carve outs” for delays or cancellations that “75% aren’t their fault” due to weather or FAA/ATC mandated ground stops and that they will have to charge more now for fully refundable tickets. Trying to think of any other industry that doesn’t have to provide refunds for services they cannot render.
Can we get a source for
"Passed the first Federal privacy law to stop data brokers from selling sensitive information to China and Russia"
Seems like a huge deal and I can't find a single news article about it via Google search
Check out today's (26 April) Financial Times article on non competes. https://www.ft.com/content/681ca675-d92a-4be1-bcd3-ed31c16ab191
The article is informative and, on balance, favorable to the position of banning (most) non competes. The trade groups will fight this in court--indeed, they want to challenge the very authority of the FTC to ban non competes--but the sensible position is to find ways to adapt. And for companies looking to adapt, the article contains a list of the benefits accruing to firms who work with their employees rather than trying to strap them down via adhesive contracts.
It will be many years before these 'extraordinary 'changes'' actually happen. And by then, even if DIMS are elected they will renege on very quickly. Too much for the people is moving much too slowly. It's all about wars, death and destruction and raking in $billions for that for the elites and of course let's not forget BIGPHARMA's $billions as well. That is if WWIII doesn't commence...
I disagree entirely with your assessment. In the spirit of Thomas Sowell, our problem in this country is not-not enough government or governing as you put it; but that we have way too much governing. What will be the cost of all this? Less flights? Layoffs because of mandatory OT pay? Something more sinister than TIK TOK emerging from that pile of dung. No-one ever considers the cost of a NEW regulation. As Jared Dillion puts it “There is no problem in existence that can’t be solved by FREE markets.” Remember, there are no solutions in life, only tradeoffs; and when you trade free will or market driven price discovery for more government regulations, you end up where we are today, with sky rocketing equity and asset prices. Tariffs only hurt consumers, they do nothing to stop the offending nation who dumps their excess goods on our shores. Add to it higher prices for almost everything; we will soon have shortages of almost everything. Who will the boogieman be then?
There is no concern that FTC regulation could lead to blackmailing of small businesses by big business buying over their employees and the information they are holding? Getting paid for changing jobs could not be 'bribes', since it would be the very point of the freedom to choose employer.