Donald Trump must bust Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google monopolies like Teddy Roosevelt

[Dashinka 23,245]

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnistPublished 11:40 a.m. ET Nov. 19, 2018

 

I’ve just finished reading Columbia Law professor Tim Wu’s new book on antitrust, "The Curse of Bigness," and my biggest takeaway is that President Donald Trump has an opportunity to follow in former President Teddy Roosevelt’s footsteps.  

Roosevelt built a strong reputation by going after the trusts, huge combinations that placed control of entire industries in the hands of one or a few men. He broke up John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil, the Google of its day. He shut down J.P. Morgan’s Northern Securities Co., which would have monopolized rail transportation in much of the United States. And he pursued numerous other cases (45 in all) that broke up monopolies and returned competition to markets.

Roosevelt operated against a Gilded Age background in which a few companies had, by means both fair and foul, eliminated virtually all competition. This was bad for consumers, as it drove prices up. It was also, surprisingly, bad for shareholders: Wu notes that Standard Oil’s value actually increased post-breakup, as it went from inefficient monopoly to a collection of competitive companies. Most of all, it was bad for American society.

 

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/2018/11/19/donald-trump-roosevelt-monopoly-antitrust-facebook-apple-netflix-google-glenn-reynolds-column/2055304002/

 

[TBoneTX 43,058]

No one would be allowed to trust-bust today.

And if they tried, some Federal judge in California or Hawaii would stop it.

Edited November 20, 2018 by TBoneTX

[Chris Duffy 1,256]

2 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

No one would be allowed to trust-bust today.

And if they tried, some Federal judge in California or Hawaii would stop it.

That is actually True

[Dashinka 23,245]

5 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

No one would be allowed to trust-bust today.

And if they tried, some Federal judge in California or Hawaii would stop it.

Agreed, and in some ways, I am not sure how Amazon fits in the opinion I attached since it has plenty of competition both on the net and brick and mortar.  As to FB and Google, there might be a case, but people can just stop using them.

[yuna628 9,528]

I do not see any of these as monopolies. The consumer has the option to not use them. If everyone decided not to use facebook and it's other properties it would no longer exist. Also, why on earth would people call Netflix a monopoly? Good grief... consumers have a wealth of choice of hundreds (if not thousands) of subscriber and free providers of streaming content.

[TBoneTX 43,058]

Fine line sometimes between "best at what they do" and "monopoly."

[Dashinka 23,245]

54 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

I do not see any of these as monopolies. The consumer has the option to not use them. If everyone decided not to use facebook and it's other properties it would no longer exist. Also, why on earth would people call Netflix a monopoly? Good grief... consumers have a wealth of choice of hundreds (if not thousands) of subscriber and free providers of streaming content.

Then why does the media put so much stock in FB as influential in political dealings?  I agree, FB is a joke, and really isn’t A monopoly, and honestly, they are nothing more than a poor man’s entertainment venue.