LOEBS: Beak Capitalism, Part 3: Un-Clucking the System

Odd Lots

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4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the final episode of our special three-part series exploring the US economy through the chicken industry, we’re taking a look at market competition. Chicken in the US is dominated by a handful of huge poultry processors. But new technologies, like algorithmic pricing, are also leading to accusations of anticompetitive corporate behavior that can potentially create bad outcomes for both consumers and workers. We’re using poultry to trace the evolution of America’s approach to antitrust and learning what’s different now. You’ll hear from senior officials at the Department of Justice about how concentration in chicken and elsewhere is impacting the economy, and what can be done to fix it.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bloomberg Audio Studios.
0:05.3	Podcasts, Radio News.
0:11.4	Joe, why did the chicken join the Revolutionary War?
0:14.5	I have no idea.
0:16.1	Because it didn't want to be cooped up under British rule.
0:18.7	Okay, but setting aside the terrible puns, wasn't it
0:22.2	really about taxes? Joe, Joe, why did the colonial chicken refuse to pay British taxes? Because it
0:28.5	didn't want to put all its eggs in King George's basket. Should I keep going? No, I'm good. I'm good. Thanks.
0:33.8	I'm good. Okay, fine. To understand chicken and the current landscape of the U.S. economy and the companies in it, it helps to go back in time and revisit a few key moments in U.S. history.
0:46.6	Going back to the founding, Americans were actually suspicious of the power of large corporations. And one reason for that is that it used to be
0:57.0	that the government would grant corporate charters, right? There's this history in the United States
1:01.3	before general incorporation statutes that corporations are really creatures of the state.
1:07.7	And so there was always this suspicion that if they grew to be too powerful,
1:12.7	the kind of abuse that they could bring to bear on the lives of ordinary people was really
1:18.4	extensive. Doha Mecki is the principal deputy assistant general in the antitrust division of
1:24.3	the Department of Justice. That's a long title. It means she's the second
1:28.7	highest ranking official there. Today, the U.S. government has a whole constellation of laws,
1:33.9	acts and agencies all aimed at ensuring that America's economy remains fair and competitive.
1:38.9	One of the most important is where Doha works, the DOJ.
1:42.1	The antitrust division is one component of many at the Justice Department, and our specific
1:47.9	mandate is to enforce the antitrust laws and essentially to guarantee and vindicate the economic
1:55.1	liberty of all Americans. And we do that by enforcing the federal antitrust laws, the best known of which are the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act.
	...

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