How Biden is restoring economic competition (with David Dayen)

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode argues that the Biden administration is executing a major, underappreciated shift in economic policy through competition-focused executive action, regulatory enforcement, and agency coordination. Guest David Dayen explains how a 72-item 2021 executive order is reshaping antitrust, labor mobility, consumer choice, and industry structure, signaling a broader rejection of neoliberal market concentration and a return to pro-competition governance.

Main Topics: Biden’s competition agenda as a major economic reversal (Priority: 5/5): The hosts frame Biden’s policy program as historically consequential, arguing it marks a turn away from decades of laissez-faire, Bork-era antitrust thinking toward active government management of markets. The 2021 executive order and whole-of-government strategy (Priority: 5/5): David Dayen explains that Tim Wu’s executive order bundled 72 separate actions across agencies, using presidential authority and recurring oversight to align the bureaucracy behind competition policy. Non-competes as a labor-market reform (Priority: 5/5): The FTC’s proposed ban on non-compete clauses is highlighted as a landmark move to expand worker mobility, reduce wage suppression, and demonstrate the agency’s renewed willingness to write and enforce competition rules. Sector-specific wins: hearing aids, mergers, and publishing (Priority: 4/5): Examples include over-the-counter hearing aids, a tougher merger posture, and the DOJ’s victory blocking the Simon & Schuster/Penguin Random House merger on worker-wage grounds. Agency resistance and uneven implementation (Priority: 4/5): Some departments, especially Agriculture and Transportation, are moving slower or more cautiously than others, showing the difficulty of turning bureaucratic culture toward a new policy direction. The politics of pro-competition economics (Priority: 4/5): The discussion emphasizes that competition policy is broadly popular because it benefits ordinary Americans, while industry and its allies will likely resist in court and Congress. A broader narrative shift beyond antitrust (Priority: 5/5): The episode argues the real transformation is not just about monopolies but about redefining capitalism so it serves workers, consumers, and democracy instead of concentrated corporate power.

Key Arguments: The Biden administration is more consequential than many observers realize because its competition agenda extends across the whole economy, not just antitrust enforcement. The 2021 executive order mattered as much for its symbolism and coordination as for any single policy outcome; it signaled a new governing priority and forced agencies to respond. The old Borkian standard focused narrowly on consumer prices and treated mergers as presumptively efficient, which enabled corporate consolidation and weakened labor, innovation, and democracy. Non-competes are a prime example of anti-worker market distortion because they suppress wages and mobility in jobs where trade-secret protection is not a real justification. The FTC’s move to ban non-competes shows the agency is using dormant authority under Section 5 to define and police unfair competition rather than acting only case by case. Hearing aid reform shows how executive pressure can break cartel-like pricing and translate policy into tangible savings for consumers. The DOJ’s merger challenge in publishing is significant because it treated authors as workers whose bargaining power and compensation would be harmed by consolidation. Implementation varies by agency: some bureaucracies are still moving too slowly, while others are unexpectedly finding new ways to pursue competition policy. Even where resistance exists, the administration is shifting the long-term direction of government, and that bureaucratic change may outlast the presidency. The political upside is strong because competition policy is easy to explain in populist terms: it makes markets work for people, not the other way around.

Data Points: Executive order items: 72 discrete items - Tim Wu’s July 2021 competition executive order was described as containing dozens of agency directives. Date signed: July 2021 - The competition-focused executive order was signed in July 2021. Time since order: about a year and a half - Dayen discussed the order as a progress report roughly 18 months after issuance. Workers covered by non-competes: about 1 in 5 Americans - The FTC non-compete issue was framed as affecting a large share of the workforce. Public comments on FTC rule: over 10,000 - The proposed non-compete ban drew an unusually large volume of public comments, mostly from workers. Hearing aid savings: about $3,000 per person - Biden was said to plan to cite consumer savings from hearing-aid reform in the State of the Union. Hearing aid cost reduction: hundreds of dollars instead of thousands - Over-the-counter hearing aids were presented as a major affordability win versus prior prescription-based pricing. Monopoly duration in fire retardant market: 22 years - The U.S. Forest Service’s qualified product list had only one company for wildfire retardant for 22 years. Fire retardant market entry: first new competitor in 22 years - The Forest Service added Fortress as a competitor to Perimeter Solutions. Major publishers: 5 to 4 - The Simon & Schuster/Penguin Random House merger would have reduced the number of major publishers from five to four.

Pivotal Quotes: "competition policy is how we ensure that our economy isn't about people working on it. It's not about working for capitalism. It's about capitalism working for people." — President Joe Biden: Cited as the episode’s central framing for the administration’s middle-out economic approach. "Let's step on all the landmines at once." — Tim Wu: Described the strategy for pushing broad competition reforms across agencies despite expected pushback. "You can't build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out if the economy is dominated by five giant companies." — Host (David Goldstein/Nick Hanauer context): Used to explain why competition policy is essential to the administration’s economic agenda.

Implications: The episode suggests a durable policy pivot away from concentrated corporate power toward pro-worker, pro-competition governance. Expect legal fights, agency resistance, and consumer benefits that could redefine Democratic economic politics for years.