The Progressive Regulator Winning Over the Populist Right
19 June 2025

The Progressive Regulator Winning Over the Populist Right

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

About

Is the key to freedom a life without Amazon? This week, Ross talks to Lina Khan, former Chair of the Federal Trade Commission about how unchecked corporate power has limited choice in our day-to-day lives, and how her fight against Big Tech unites left and right.

    02:41 - What’s wrong with big business?09:27 - The political costs of corporate consolidation11:39 - How the 2008 financial crisis shaped Lina Khan's philosophy17:49 - The antitrust consensus from Reagan to Obama21:54 - How the left and right align against big business 26:12 - Khan's wins and losses at the FTC 36:53 - Is the Trump administration embracing or rejecting Khan's vision?42:32 - Is anti-monopoly policy the solution to our economic problems?48:38 - Can Big Tech be broken up?

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) 

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com.


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