thebignewsletter.com

5 days ago | thebignewsletter.com | Matt Stoller

"The essence of antitrust law is to try to keep the system working by recognizing that, at certain points, some companies may get too big for their own good, they're self-imploding, or the technology may become so dominant that it's just crushing all other elements where there can be innovation." - Judge Leonie Brinkema, 2023, United States v.

1 week ago | thebignewsletter.com | Matt Stoller

I have good and bad monopoly news of the week. So much is happening! As usual, I’ll start with a focus on an event that I think was particularly important. This week, it’s what Trump did to pull back from his assertive tariff strategy, as well as China’s response. Let’s start with the setup. Trump ran on tariffs, and in February, he broadcast his strategy, fostering a slow decline in financial markets.

1 week ago | thebignewsletter.com | Matt Stoller

Starting on Monday, the long-awaited antitrust trial to break up Meta’s social media trifecta - Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp - gets underway in a DC federal court. As part of BIG, we hire reporters to cover key litigation and put daily coverage on a sister site, Big Tech on Trial, which you can sign up for if you want all the ins and outs. This Big Tech on Trial piece is a curtain-raiser on the coming legal fight.

2 weeks ago | thebignewsletter.com | Matt Stoller

The monopoly round-up has good and bad news, but is mostly dominated by Trump’s tariff disaster, which is roiling markets and shutting down merger deals. I’ll look at that, and then I’ll do the rest of the round-up. First, I have a question for readers of BIG, particularly those who work in commerce or run businesses. What are you seeing? What are your plans right now to deal with current conditions? Any details would be helpful, like your region, import dependence, et al.

2 weeks ago | thebignewsletter.com | Matt Stoller

On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced something he called “Liberation Day,” which he characterized as reorienting our trade policy by imposing a set of new and high tariffs across most of our major trading partners. In response, China imposed retaliatory tariffs, the Canadian Prime Minister pronounced the end of American economic leadership, and stock market fell fairly dramatically.