Reflections on President Biden's Executive Order on Competition

GAICIL Insights

President Biden’s 2021 executive order on competition set goals few would oppose: lower prices, higher wages, more convenience. The report argues that the order is the wrong way to reach them.

It reads the order as driven by hostility toward large corporations rather than evidence. The tension it identifies continues in executive action on AI.

Abstract

Few would oppose the president’s stated goals of lowering prices, raising wages, and increasing convenience for Americans. But his executive order is not the way to achieve them.¹

Report

Conclusion

President Biden’s executive order reflects the deep and abiding animus most progressives and many liberals now have toward large corporations. As such, they seek to reshape the U.S. economy away from a corporate structure. This appears to be the real motivation behind the president’s order. Rather than focus on largely unneeded competition agenda, the nation needs a productivity and growth agenda.
Robert D. Atkinson (@RobAtkinsonITIF) is the founder and president of ITIF. Atkinson’s books include Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business (MIT, 2018), Innovation Economics: The Race for Global Advantage (Yale, 2012), Supply-Side Follies: Why Conservative Economics Fails, Liberal Economics Falters, and Innovation Economics Is the Answer (Rowman Littlefield, 2007), and The Past and Future of America’s Economy: Long Waves of Innovation That Power Cycles of Growth (Edward Elgar, 2005). Atkinson holds a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Takeaway: Few would oppose the president’s stated goals of lowering prices, raising wages, and increasing convenience for Americans. But his executive order is not the way to achieve them.

Conclusion quoted verbatim from the report.

Notes

Robert D. Atkinson, Aurelien Portuese, Daniel Castro & Stephen Ezell, Reflections on President Biden's Executive Order on Competition (Info. Tech. & Innovation Found., July 12, 2021), https://itif.org/publications/2021/07/12/reflections-president-bidens-executive-order-competition/. Summary quoted verbatim from the ITIF publication page, https://itif.org/publications/2021/07/12/reflections-president-bidens-executive-order-competition/. ↩

Cite as: Robert D. Atkinson, Aurelien Portuese, Daniel Castro & Stephen Ezell, Reflections on President Biden's Executive Order on Competition (Info. Tech. & Innovation Found., July 12, 2021), https://itif.org/publications/2021/07/12/reflections-president-bidens-executive-order-competition/

Header image: Eisenhower Executive Office Building 20240601.jpg by 颐园居, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.