President Biden’s Executive Order on Economic Competition: Read It For Yourself
President Joe Biden signs 17 executive orders on his first day in office, January 20th, 2021. Photo by DiogoC300, CC BY-SA 4.0
President Biden’s Executive Order signed on Friday includes 70 provisions on everything from agriculture to net neutrality.
President Biden signed an executive order Friday taking aim at industries where companies dominate the market, kicking off a major new battle between the administration and corporate titans that could reshape aspects of the U.S. economy.
The executive order — which contains 72 initiatives — is striking in its scope and ambition, challenging the business practices of America’s enormous technology, health-care, agricultural and manufacturing firms while also aiming to shake up smaller sectors dominated by only a handful of companies, such as the hearing aid industry.
“The heart of American capitalism is a simple idea: open and fair competition,” Biden said in remarks before signing the order, accompanied by several members of his Cabinet. “Competition keeps the economy moving and keeps it growing. Fair competition is why capitalism has been the world’s greatest force for prosperity and growth.”
The effort reflects a major change in Democratic policymaking circles, where a new generation of economists has produced research and advocacy arguing that corporate consolidation has harmed workers and consumers. But it also tees up a major challenge for the administration, which is likely to face sharp resistance from businesses that may seek relief through courts that have shown skepticism about competition arguments in the past.
Late last month, a federal court threw out antitrust cases brought against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.
What’s more, many big companies have only grown in power in the past 18 months, as size became a huge asset in navigating the financial and economic turbulence of the coronavirus pandemic.
The executive order identifies a wide range of sectors that it says are in need of reform.
It encourages federal regulators to craft new rules on tech companies’ data collection and user surveillance practices, targeting the path that such giants as Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon took to dominance. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Biden wants to reduce broadband providers’ market control by restoring net neutrality rules that were dropped during the Trump administration and limiting their ability to cut exclusive deals with landlords.
The order also tells the Food and Drug Administration to work toward allowing the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and calls for new rules limiting “noncompete” agreements, which prevent employees from switching jobs.
Other recommendations include compelling airlines to disclose “add-on fees” for seating and baggage and making it easier for consumers to get refunds on flights, as well as requiring banks to allow customers to take their financial transaction data when they switch to a competitor. The order also aims to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter, which Biden said Friday would save consumers hundreds of dollars.
Read President Biden’s Executive Order For Yourself Here:
Biden Executive Order
I haven’t read the whole thing, but I’ve heard he addresses non-competes. I’m not sure what an EO can hope to do in that regard…?Report
For government contractors – a lot.Report
Well that’s not nothing, at least.Report
I read through the doc and it strikes me as the ‘good’ kind of EO… that is, one which directs existing agencies under existing laws how to approach, prioritize and execute those laws.
I’d quibble that it would be better to call this the Biden Executive Branch Regulatory Guidance memo… fetishizing EO’s as some sort of powerful action is kinda bad in short-, mid-, and long-term.
Three items where I have some familiarity struck me as sensible corrections IF, and this is a big IF, anything actually happens… which, to be honest, I kinda doubt… which is also why I don’t like the EO fetish – it give the *appearance* of having done something.
The Ag stuff is mostly good… but this in particular is simply long overdue:
(C) prohibiting unfair practices related to grower ranking systems — systems in which the poultry companies, contractors, or dealers exercise extraordinary control over numerous inputs that determine the amount farmers are paid and require farmers to assume the risk of factors outside their control, leaving them more economically vulnerable;
On Winery and Beer distribution (I used to work on the Wine Distributor side)… this entire industry is sclerotic owing to the collusion between State Tax authorities and Distribution companies which work together to inhibit competition, prevent direct sales, and classically exact rents on other entities productivity… It needs a massive scrubbing, which I fear this directive will not address.
(i) initiating a rulemaking to update the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s trade practice regulations;
(ii) rescinding or revising any regulations of the beer, wine, and spirits industries that may unnecessarily inhibit competition; and
(iii) reducing any barriers that impede market access for smaller and independent brewers, winemakers, and distilleries.
The biggest miss, IMO has to do with Broadband. It focuses on mostly useless things like Price transparency and fees reporting… which is a very minor issue for people who already have broadband. The broadband issue in the US isn’t pricing, it’s access. And this EO betrays a very BOS-WASH concern that simple ‘doesn’t get it’. I’m told this is also VP Harris’s remit.
March’s Broadband remediation EO would have at least the following:
*Requirements for Broadband companies to service all customers
*Fees to connect customers can be charged, but they will be regulated (like Electric)
*Broadband monopolies (various Pole rights) that were negotiated by localities under duress may be appealed… in some cases abolished, in other cases, sharing fees (regulated as above) to recoup investment are permitted.
*Broadband self-reporting coverage data in support of local contracts must be made public for analysis by third parties.
*etc.
So, to the extent that the Executive Branch uses discretion to enforce the laws on the books regarding their regulatory statues… this is a well, of course, sort of thing. To the extent that March is looking for ‘real’ enhancements to Business in America which refocuses the capitalist project to value labor proportionally to capital? Well, no this is not *that* kind of exciting Executive initiative.
Finally… on the ‘hot-button’ issue of consolidation, I’m in favor heeding the warning specific in The Wealth of Nations against consolidation… however, I think this topic is both more simple and more complicated than we presently understand. I’m much less concerned about Billionaires controlling XYZ than I am with corporations shaping markets with unfair advantages which ultimately distort or break markets only to see them reconstituted under new market ownership. That is, mostly a predatory business practice model vs. anti-markets.Report