Busted Trust

 “Antitrust,” by Amy Klobuchar (last 2 chapters), 2021

If you are wondering why I’d review part of a book by a known centrist and neo-liberal, I’ll tell you.  It was loaned to me by a neighbor who is a Democrat.  I also wondered why someone who has almost never opposed corporations in her home state of Minnesota would even write this.  Perhaps the ideological threat on the left is becoming more real.  Monopoly is an old word from the late 1800s, first talked about by Theodore Roosevelt, the fake ‘trust buster’ of the early 1900s.  Evidently Klobuchar realizes this kind of rhetoric might again be relevant… at least in regards to some companies.

I read the last two chapters of this 355 page book to spare myself the time.  They are titled “The Path Forward” and “Conclusion.”  This will give me an idea if Klobuchar wants to repeat what was suggested over a 100 years ago (forward thinking, aye?) or something different.  It will tell me if she understands that capital always leads to monopoly – properly termed ‘oligopoly’ in this day and age.

Marxists have dealt with this issue since the beginning, not having to wait a hundred years. U.S. Marxists Baran and Sweezy wrote a whole book titled Monopoly Capital in 1966 when Klobuchar was 6. (Book reviewed below.)   Marxism understands ‘monopoly’ to be another form of capitalist competition.  Baran and Sweezy estimated it basically ended price competition among the big firms. Michael Roberts challenges B/S's perspective, saying the price similarity is not that great. https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2021/07/11/capitalism-has-the-leopard-changed-its-spots/  If you look at ANY sector of the U.S. economy today, it is dominated by 2-3 to 6 large corporations.  This is properly called ‘oligopoly’ - a term avoided by Klobuchar for good reason, as it exposes the real issue.

MARX, LENIN & LUXEMBURG

In The Poverty of Philosophy (1847) Marx wrote about the functioning of capital:

1. “Everyone knows that modern monopoly is engendered by competition itself.”

2. “In practical life we find not only competition, monopoly and the antagonism between them, but also the synthesis of the two, which is not a formula, but a movement. Monopoly produces competition, competition produces monopoly. Monopolists are made from competition; competitors become monopolists. If the monopolists restrict their mutual competition by means of partial associations, competition increases among the workers; and the more the mass of the proletarians grows as against the monopolists of one nation, the more desperate competition becomes between the monopolists of different nations. The synthesis is of such a character that monopoly can only maintain itself by continually entering into the struggle of competition.”

In the same work, Marx describes what competition also does, as Klobuchar loves the chimera of wonderful competition:

3. "Competition engenders misery, it foments civil war, it 'changes natural zones,' mixes up nationalities, causes trouble in families, corrupts the public conscience, 'subverts the notion of equity, of justice,' of morality, and what is worse, it destroys free, honest trade, and does not even give in exchange synthetic value, fixed, honest price. It disillusions everyone, even economists. It pushes things so far as to destroy its very self."

In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts (1844) Marx in a section on The Competition Among the Capitalists describes the greater accumulation of capital by larger capitalists, to the ruin of smaller ones. Lenin took these ideas further in describing how large capitalists then exported capital around the world, providing the basis for modern imperialism, the ‘highest stage of capitalism.’  Luxemburg continued this point by maintaining that the conquering of these new ‘frontiers’ by large monopoly capital was necessary under imperialism, until the last frontier is gone. 

Cracks in the wall?

“THE PLAN, BOSS, THE PLAN”

So what does the lawyer and Senator from Minnesota actually say in her tome? My guess is nothing like this. Most of the book is a leftish history of anti-trust activity in the U.S.  Over the last two chapters, in 25 points, she advocates enforcing and enhancing existing anti-trust law – which somehow has not stemmed the tide over these 100 years.  Beefing this up are specific reforms to slow down, halt or reverse mergers, to initiate patent reform and to punish anti-competitive pricing.  Added to this is a familiar bevy of reforms to correct the corporatization of society, some of which are certainly supportable.  In fact, there are so many reforms needed here it reminds one of a man with 25 wounds all over his body covered by band-aids.  Or a boat with 25 holes in it.  Patch, patch, patch, patch...    

Specifically in her 25 points she aims at “Big Tech,” “Big Pharma” for lower prices and incidentally, China.  'True' monopolies like Amazon or Facebook might be her only real target.  She ironically asks that ‘antitrust’ not be used except historically, as ‘trusts’ are no longer a relevant term for large corporations. She harks back to Adam Smith’s hostility to monopolies and hopes everyone will combine to fight for ‘competition’ once again.  

Many of these ideas have already been promoted by politicians like Elizabeth Warren and academic Lina Khan.

‘DA FLAWS

This book reflects the pressure of the left on neo-liberalism, which has clearly failed.  To her credit, Klobuchar seems to be responding a bit.  However, the flaws in her whole approach are obvious.  In her solutions, Klobuchar leaves out nearly every existing oligopoly in the U.S. – banking, finance, insurance, oil, mining, energy, retail, media, auto, agriculture, tech hardware, aircraft, military - you name it.  She has ignored history and Marx’s point that competition begets monopoly in a capitalist system.  Remember the 'breakup' of AT&T/Bell in 1982, the last actual 'anti-trust' action?  AT&T is still one of the top 3 phone companies in the U.S. So ‘busting trusts’ will only allow the process to start again.  The recent lawsuit against Microsoft for bundling Explorer into its base software has now lead to Microsoft pushing Edge at every opportunity within Office.  It is a political version of Ground Hog Day.  

Instead, history points in another direction – forward, to the future.  The next step is for large corporations to be socialized without compensation, taken over by a workers’ government and their own work-force.  There is actually nothing wrong with Amazon, Google, Facebook or any other large corporation that various socialist approaches can’t fix.  It can be argued that a company like Amazon is actually more efficient than thousands of malls or stores.  This logic can be applied to other large corporations. It is also possible to create municipal, state and federal companies that compete with the oligopolies, starting in health care, high-speed internet service, energy and banking.  This she doesn't address.  She also ignores the international question.  The accumulation and export of capital by 'monopolies' leads to world-wide domination, not just national domination. 

Behind much of this is the romanticization of small business inherent in her approach.  It is as if capital was still in the 1700s when Smith wrote, full of small pin factories, not in 2021 with mega-corporations stretching around the world. 

More than that, does she mean any of this?  After all, the term 'centrism' for a politician hides someone who leans to the right.  Even in local politics, she's no enemy of corporate America.  Klobuchar supports the wolf hunt in Minnesota, where wolves are ‘harvested’ in the interest of the farm, real estate and hunting industries.  She wobbled on Enbridge’s Line 3.  Enbridge is the largest pipeline firm in north America.  She quietly supports toxic sulfide mining in northern Minnesota, initiated by two of the biggest mining conglomerates in the world. 

For her campaigns in the last 5 years, Klobuchar took money from United Health Group and Best Buy, both oligarchical firms in their sectors.  She also got money from 2 billionaires from Blackstone, the largest hedge fund and now real estate firm in the country. Other large firms?  Slim-Fast, Linked-In, Direct-TVs Hubbard, the GAP – all told a total of 15 motley billionaires from law, finance, real estate, agriculture and Hollywood.  I guess this is why we’ll call the smug Klobuchar a ‘trust buster’ – because she can’t be trusted, just like Teddy Roosevelt, in spite of her leftish feint.

7/9/21 - Biden comes out against tech 'monopoly.' 

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box upper left to search our 14 year archive of reviews:  “Klobuchar a Hot Dish Neo-Liberal,” “Just Mercy,” “Bernie Needs to Toughen Up His Debate Performances,” “Monopoly Capital,” “A Night at the Caucuses,” “The Populist’s Guide to 2020,” “Professional Degrees in Recent Democratic Party Politics,” “Crying Wolf,” “The Endless Crisis” or the word “monopoly.”

Red Frog

May 28, 2021