Antitrust enforcement improves under Biden

 Robert Reich -Antitrust law had become a dead letter. Even Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama abandoned it. Meanwhile, corporations routinely bashed unions and fired workers who attempted to form them (often treating back pay they had to give fired workers as costs of doing business). And corporations moved to so-called “right-to-work” states that enacted laws making it particularly difficult to form unions. Carter, Clinton, and Obama all promised “labor law reform” that would strengthen unions. None ever followed through.

But under Joe Biden, there’s been a monumental shift. Antitrust enforcement has surged. Efforts to form unions have been protected and encouraged. This shift has gotten lost under the mainstream media’s fixation with government spending, taxing, and the federal debt. This is too bad, because the shift has been one of Biden’s most important achievements. If it continues under a second Biden term, it could change the structure of the U.S. economy — to bring capital and labor into better balance.