Matt Stoller is the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project, a think tank launched in 2020 to promote limiting the concentration of economic power. Pioneer of the antitrust movement in the United States, former adviser to the Senate Budget Committee, he is the author of the book Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon and Schuster, untranslated, October 2019, 608 pages, 17.44 euros).
The appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as chief competition economist for the European Commission is causing a stir in Europe, and particularly in France. How is it perceived in the United States? What is his philosophy?
She is well known in the specialized field of competition economics. Competition and consumers are secondary in his thinking. I know her and have found some of her work useful, but others too corporate-powered. Its philosophy is that big business is efficient and economic experts are enough to enact regulations to protect consumers.
That’s why she works for Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, among others, as a consultant. It opposes the dissolution of large corporations or any measure aimed at challenging their power. This 2019 article, titled “Breaking up Facebook probably won’t work,” offers a good insight into his thinking.
Her supporters argue that she was chosen by Barack Obama to fill a high-level antitrust position at the Department of Justice in 2011-2012.
When Fiona Scott Morton was in the antitrust division, the Obama administration made it easy for big business to dominate. Europeans tend to see Obama as a friendly and charming president. However, when it comes to business regulation, he has not been successful. It was under his presidency that big tech companies became monopolies and there was consolidation in virtually every sector of the US economy, resulting in higher prices and lower wages. This is a major reason why Americans rejected the status quo and elected Trump. Fiona Scott Morton played a role in this consolidation. Besides, Joe Biden did not recruit her.
Lobbying firm Charles River Associates has declared itself ” proud “ of the appointment of his “top consultant Fiona Scott Morton”. Should we be worried about it?
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