Episode 139

The Age of Monopoly: Power, Censorship, & The New Consensus | Matt Stoller

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Episode 139

Matt Stoller

The Age of Monopoly: Power, Censorship, & The New Consensus | Matt Stoller

start listening

summary

In Episode 139 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. In this nearly two-hour long conversation, we discuss how monopoly, commercial concentration, and regulatory capture drive outcomes in our economy, markets, and political system and what we can do to take that power back.

This episode was recorded on Friday, May 29th, amidst the riots that have been unfolding across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year old African American man who appears to have been suffocated by Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin. Neither Matt or Demetri are in any position to provide further insight into what is transpiring in Minneapolis, but they do discuss the response by some members of the media, the White House, as well as the President’s statement that he is going to issue an executive order to roll back Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act with its legal protections for social media companies.

We also discuss the Joe Rogan-Spotify deal in the context of antitrust regulation and concentration in the podcast industry, the arrest of a CNN crew in Minneapolis, private equity and the regulatory capture of government by the financial sector, and perhaps most importantly a conversation about the future of the Democratic and Republican parties and whether we are living through the early stages of a new political consensus forming in American life.

You can access the episode overtime, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week’s episode through the Hidden Forces Supercast Page. All subscribers gain access to our overtime feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

Subscribe & Support the Podcast at http://patreon.com/hiddenforces

Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod

Episode Recorded on 05/29/2020

bio

Matt Stoller is the Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. He is the author of the Simon and Schuster book Goliath: The Hundred Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, which Business Insider called “one of the year’s best books on how to rethink capitalism and improve the economy.” David Cicilline, Chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, has called Stoller’s work “an inspiration.” Stoller is a former policy advisor to the Senate Budget Committee.

He also worked for a member of the Financial Services Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives during the financial crisis. While a staffer, he wrote a provision of law mandating a third party audit of the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending activities. He also helped cut part of a $20 billion subsidy to large financial institutions. His 2012 law review article on the foreclosure crisis, The Housing Crash and the End of American Citizenship, predicted the rise of autocratic political forces, and his 2016 Atlantic article, How the Democrats Killed their Populist Soul, helped inspire the new anti-monopoly movement. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fast Company, Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Vice, The American Conservative, and the Baffler. Stoller writes the monopoly-focused newsletter Big with tens of thousands of subscribers, which you can subscribe to here.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vidit Homerus probari fabulam non posse, si cantiunculis tantus irretitus vir teneretur; Res enim se praeclare habebat, et quidem in utraque parte. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Beatus autem esse in maximarum rerum timore nemo potest. Egone non intellego, quid sit don Graece, Latine voluptas? Ut in geometria, prima si dederis, danda sunt omnia. Iam id ipsum absurdum, maximum malum neglegi. Quid, quod res alia tota est? Etiam beatissimum? Si sapiens, ne tum quidem miser, cum ab Oroete, praetore Darei, in crucem actus est.

Tum Piso: Quoniam igitur aliquid omnes, quid Lucius noster? Quid de Platone aut de Democrito loquar? Illis videtur, qui illud non dubitant bonum dicere -; Quo igitur, inquit, modo? Cetera illa adhibebat, quibus demptis negat se Epicurus intellegere quid sit bonum. At ego quem huic anteponam non audeo dicere; Cum autem negant ea quicquam ad beatam vitam pertinere, rursus naturam relinquunt. Sed tamen intellego quid velit. Hoc dixerit potius Ennius: Nimium boni est, cui nihil est mali.

Sed quamquam negant nec virtutes nec vitia crescere, tamen utrumque eorum fundi quodam modo et quasi dilatari putant. Nummus in Croesi divitiis obscuratur, pars est tamen divitiarum. Nam illud vehementer repugnat, eundem beatum esse et multis malis oppressum. Vide ne ista sint Manliana vestra aut maiora etiam, si imperes quod facere non possim.

Honesta oratio, Socratica, Platonis etiam. Miserum hominem! Si dolor summum malum est, dici aliter non potest. Atqui reperies, inquit, in hoc quidem pertinacem; Quam illa ardentis amores excitaret sui! Cur tandem? Vide igitur ne non debeas verbis nostris uti, sententiis tuis. Suam denique cuique naturam esse ad vivendum ducem. Totum autem id externum est, et quod externum, id in casu est. Egone quaeris, inquit, quid sentiam? Quae cum magnifice primo dici viderentur, considerata minus probabantur. Roges enim Aristonem, bonane ei videantur haec: vacuitas doloris, divitiae, valitudo; Hosne igitur laudas et hanc eorum, inquam, sententiam sequi nos censes oportere? Quid loquor de nobis, qui ad laudem et ad decus nati, suscepti, instituti sumus?

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Gracchum patrem non beatiorem fuisse quam fillum, cum alter stabilire rem publicam studuerit, alter evertere. Hoc Hieronymus summum bonum esse dixit. Graece donan, Latine voluptatem vocant. Qui autem de summo bono dissentit de tota philosophiae ratione dissentit. Ad corpus diceres pertinere-, sed ea, quae dixi, ad corpusne refers? Nam Metrodorum non puto ipsum professum, sed, cum appellaretur ab Epicuro, repudiare tantum beneficium noluisse;

Quis animo aequo videt eum, quem inpure ac flagitiose putet vivere? Atqui iste locus est, Piso, tibi etiam atque etiam confirmandus, inquam; Cur post Tarentum ad Archytam? Virtutibus igitur rectissime mihi videris et ad consuetudinem nostrae orationis vitia posuisse contraria. Eam si varietatem diceres, intellegerem, ut etiam non dicente te intellego; Unum nescio, quo modo possit, si luxuriosus sit, finitas cupiditates habere. Et hercule-fatendum est enim, quod sentio -mirabilis est apud illos contextus rerum. Atque ab isto capite fluere necesse est omnem rationem bonorum et malorum. Omnes enim iucundum motum, quo sensus hilaretur.

Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Superiores tres erant, quae esse possent, quarum est una sola defensa, eaque vehementer. Si sapiens, ne tum quidem miser, cum ab Oroete, praetore Darei, in crucem actus est. Mihi vero, inquit, placet agi subtilius et, ut ipse dixisti, pressius. Parvi enim primo ortu sic iacent, tamquam omnino sine animo sint.

Nihilo magis. Dici enim nihil potest verius. Quae iam oratio non a philosopho aliquo, sed a censore opprimenda est. Sed tamen intellego quid velit. Hoc etsi multimodis reprehendi potest, tamen accipio, quod dant.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Apparet statim, quae sint officia, quae actiones. Commoda autem et incommoda in eo genere sunt, quae praeposita et reiecta diximus; Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Pollicetur certe.

Piso igitur hoc modo, vir optimus tuique, ut scis, amantissimus. Illud mihi a te nimium festinanter dictum videtur, sapientis omnis esse semper beatos; Si qua in iis corrigere voluit, deteriora fecit. Totum autem id externum est, et quod externum, id in casu est. Aufidio, praetorio, erudito homine, oculis capto, saepe audiebam, cum se lucis magis quam utilitatis desiderio moveri diceret. Sic, et quidem diligentius saepiusque ista loquemur inter nos agemusque communiter. Teneo, inquit, finem illi videri nihil dolere. Est enim effectrix multarum et magnarum voluptatum.

Sin tantum modo ad indicia veteris memoriae cognoscenda, curiosorum. Hoc est non modo cor non habere, sed ne palatum quidem. Immo videri fortasse. Si quidem, inquit, tollerem, sed relinquo. In qua quid est boni praeter summam voluptatem, et eam sempiternam? Nemo nostrum istius generis asotos iucunde putat vivere.

Quam nemo umquam voluptatem appellavit, appellat; Non dolere, inquam, istud quam vim habeat postea videro; Qua ex cognitione facilior facta est investigatio rerum occultissimarum. Quo igitur, inquit, modo? Quae cum dixisset paulumque institisset, Quid est?

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cum ageremus, inquit, vitae beatum et eundem supremum diem, scribebamus haec. Atque haec ita iustitiae propria sunt, ut sint virtutum reliquarum communia. Etenim nec iustitia nec amicitia esse omnino poterunt, nisi ipsae per se expetuntur. Nec vero intermittunt aut admirationem earum rerum, quae sunt ab antiquis repertae, aut investigationem novarum. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. De vacuitate doloris eadem sententia erit. Qui ita affectus, beatum esse numquam probabis; Quia dolori non voluptas contraria est, sed doloris privatio.

Et nunc quidem quod eam tuetur, ut de vite potissimum loquar, est id extrinsecus; Cum ageremus, inquit, vitae beatum et eundem supremum diem, scribebamus haec. Si quae forte-possumus. Qui-vere falsone, quaerere mittimus-dicitur oculis se privasse; Hoc loco discipulos quaerere videtur, ut, qui asoti esse velint, philosophi ante fiant. Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit?

Faceres tu quidem, Torquate, haec omnia; Haec et tu ita posuisti, et verba vestra sunt. Ut optime, secundum naturam affectum esse possit. Sed fortuna fortis; Aliter homines, aliter philosophos loqui putas oportere? Qua ex cognitione facilior facta est investigatio rerum occultissimarum.

At enim, qua in vita est aliquid mali, ea beata esse non potest. Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Multa sunt dicta ab antiquis de contemnendis ac despiciendis rebus humanis; Duo enim genera quae erant, fecit tria. Quare attende, quaeso.