Break Up Monopolies: Zephyr Teachout

Thursday, August 11th, 2022   Zephyr Teachout is Senior Counsel for Economic Justice for the New York Attorney General and law professor at Fordham University. We revisit our conversation with her about her book, Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. We discuss how monopolies are deeply anti-democratic, how we can break them up by enforcing existing anti-trust laws, and protect our democracy.   Monopolies are anti-democratic because they have the power to set the terms of interactions, from the pricing of consumer goods to interactions with suppliers and resolving disputes. They exert a form of private governing power and control over citizens within our democracy. Chickenization refers to the ways large poultry distributors subjugate independent chicken farmers who depend on them to bring their chickens to market. These regional monopolies force farmers to use their feed, accept the equivalent of poverty wages, require arbitration contracts, and retaliate against farmers who break the rules. Similarly, delivery apps control restaurants and ride-share apps control taxi drivers.  America has a long history of trust-busting, and anti-monopolism was once a vital facet of American political activism, and it could be again by enforcing existing US antitrust laws.    Follow Zephyr on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ZephyrTeachout    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Sponsors  Thanks to Shopify for supporting the show! Go to shopify.com/hopeful for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. Start selling on Shopify today.   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com     Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guest: Zephyr Teachout  Executive Producer: Mila Atmos  Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham