A few months into his presidency, Joe Biden signed an executive order to promote competition in the American economy saying: “We’re now 40 years into the experiment of letting giant corporations accumulate more and more power […] I believe the experiment failed.”
While those might seem unlikely words from the once centrist champion of corporate trade deals, Biden’s speeches – peppered with broadsides against “big agriculture”, “big tech” and “big pharma” – today sound closer to Britain’s former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell than Hillary Clinton.
There are many reasons for Biden’s stance on monopolies. The profound shock to America’s liberal establishment of the Trump presidency and the popularity of Clinton’s one-time opponent Bernie Sanders have certainly shifted the dial.
