Book Review of "Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age" by Senator Amy Klobuchar

Abstract

This is a review of Senator Amy Klobuchar's book, "Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age."

The traditional approach of a new Chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee is to hold hearings and write a report as the basis for proposals for new legislation and increased enforcement resources. By publishing Antitrust, Senator Amy Klobuchar is also undertaking to explain to Americans in an easy-to-understand but intellectually rigorous way what monopolies, mergers, and cartels have been doing to consumers and the economy, and then to offer solutions. Its challenging goal is to appeal to both antitrust cognoscenti and the general public. Antitrust accomplishes this task better than any other book I know.

Even before Antitrust appeared Senator Klobuchar was the foremost public advocate of tackling big tech and other monopolies and near monopolies with a forceful but achievable approach. This book both presents her case against them and carefully and pragmatically explains her solutions to the problems they create. Antitrust solidifies her place as the thoughtful and knowledgeable political leader of the anti-monopoly movement.

Keywords: antitrust, antitrust history, antitrust reform, antitrust legislation, monopoly, monopoly power, anti-monopoly, Klobuchar