This is on point, I'm Megna Chocobardi, and welcome to part four in this re-broadcast

of our special series, More Than Money, The Cost of Monopolis in America.

Today's episode is really the genesis for the entire series, because we're going to

talk about two of the most important people in the world of antitrust in the past half

century.

But before we get to that, I want to mention something significant that happened to

advanced antitrust legislation just this month.

Buried in the massive $1.7 trillion federal spending bill for 2023 is new antitrust legislation.

It enables state officials to more vigorously pursue antitrust claims and determine where

cases are tried, and it also includes a significant increase in the Federal Trade Commission's

antitrust division budget.

All told, it's the first major enhancement of federal antitrust law since 1976, according

to Matt Stoller from the American Economic Liberties Project.

Well, yesterday, in episode three, we went back in time to the last great American effort

to rein in monopoly power, the trust-busting progressive era, which brings us to today's

episode, and it begins with on-point news analyst Jack Bede.

First of all, why don't you pick up where we left off yesterday?

What did antitrust look like between 1911 through FDR and World War II?

Well, first let's go to 1911, and the Supreme Court decision breaking up standard oil,

the great monopoly, into very profitable shards as it turns out, some of them were.

That decision, that striking effect on John D. Rockefeller, he lost all his hair, including

his eyebrows, under the strain of the litigation, and he retired to a life of benefaction in

...