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Capitalisn't

Lina Khan's Vision of Capitalism

Capitalisn't

University of Chicago Podcast Network

Stigler Center, Chicago Booth, Socialism, Antitrust, University Of Chicago Podcast Network, Growth, 087667, Policy, Monopoly, Professors, Distortion, Research, Competition, Capitalisnt, Inequality, Promarket, Politics, Policymaking, Special Interest, Economics, Efficiency, Regulations, Chicago, Business, Markets, University Of Chicago, Kate Waldock, Capitalism, Friction, Bethany Mclean, Government, Macroeconomics, News, Education, Waldock, Georgetown, Microeconomics, Luigi Zingales, Zingales, Finance, Ucpn

4.5 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lina Khan recently concluded her term as one of the Biden administration’s most controversial leaders. Her tenure as chair of the Federal Trade Commission raised the profile of the relatively obscure antitrust agency charged with protecting competition. Her anti-monopoly outlook and more aggressive enforcement strategies, particularly toward Big Tech market power and protecting workers, earned the ire of the business community and the dedicated vitriol of the Wall Street Journal editorial board. Khan began her term as the youngest-ever appointee of the FTC. She initially rose to prominence for her 2017 Yale Law Journal article, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which went viral among the antitrust community for its argument that scholars and regulators must look beyond prices to understand what constitutes a harm from a lack of competition, especially in today’s digital economy where many services are nominally provided for free to consumers. Fresh out of law school, Khan appeared on a Capitalisn’t episode in our first season and wrote for our sister publication at the Stigler Center, ProMarket, as far back as 2018. She also delivered two keynote addresses at the Stigler Center’s annual Antitrust and Competition Conferences while FTC chair. On this episode, Khan returns to Capitalisn’t to reflect on her tenure, her vision of capitalism, and how her approach to enforcing existing laws with new thinking may have impacted the everyday lives of Americans. How does she respond to her critics, who include major Democratic business leaders? How does she view the new Trump administration, which is continuing many of her transformative policies, including revised merger guidelines and major lawsuits? As a senator, Vice President JD Vance said she was “one of the few people in the Biden administration actually doing a pretty good job.” Reflecting on her work, Khan also touches upon how conflicts of interest among corporate lawyers and consultants, former bureaucrats, and academics distort policymaking, court rulings, and market outcomes. Finally, she highlights the antitrust issues to pay attention to moving forward, such as algorithmic collusion.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I think a system where you're instead allowing more effectively central planning by a handful of monopolists,

0:06.9

rather than forcing those monopolists to also look over their shoulder and make sure that they're increasing their speed if they're upstarts behind them.

0:14.8

I think that there are real downsides there.

0:19.6

I'm Bethany McLean.

0:21.4

Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?

0:26.6

And I'm Luigi Zengalis.

0:28.0

We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

0:33.5

And this is Capitalism, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.

0:41.6

First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?

0:43.8

And most importantly, what isn't?

0:46.3

We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.

0:49.4

I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process.

0:57.5

As every capitalist listeners and reader of my work knows, I'm fascinated by all things antitrust.

1:03.4

So, of course, I pay attention to Lena Kahn since long before President Biden appointed her to the chair of the Federal Trade Commission.

1:06.2

A 2016 yellow journal note, Amazon antitrustrust paradox argued that focusing narrowly on consumer

1:13.6

prices, some form of the consumer welfare standard, fails to detect modern forms of monopoly

1:19.8

power.

1:20.4

The reason why Amazon did not get in trouble with antitrust is because we're so clever

1:24.8

following rigorously the rule of antitrust today, defying the

1:30.4

substance but following the rules.

1:32.9

Lena is what is known as a new Brandeasian.

1:36.2

She does not think that antitrust should only maximize consumer welfare standard, but she's

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