Joe Biden has, pretty much since the beginning of his administration, taken a stronger stand on competition policy than any US president in memory. He’s put antitrust advocates in place at the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and the White House. He issued an executive order tackling corporate concentration last July, containing 72 different provisions designed to curb the influence of giant companies.
Much of Biden’s fight has been about elevating the position of workers in the US economy and creating a more even playing field for small and midsized innovators. But the administration has also begun making a case for the connection between inflation, currently at a 40-year high, and corporate power.
In July 2021, the White House asked the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate price increases by large shipping companies. In December, it told the United States Department of Agriculture to look into whether big meatpackers were driving up food prices, creating a web portal for producers to report unfair trade practices and putting $1bn from the American Rescue Plan into helping smaller independent producers.