Washington, D.C. – Sarah Miller, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.

“It’s difficult to overstate the significance of today’s Executive Order. For forty years, our government has allowed liberty in the marketplace to wither. Policy has largely served to promote corporate concentration at the expense of entrepreneurs, smaller and medium-sized businesses, working people, and consumers.

“With this executive order, President Biden is stating that the era of big business domination of American society is over. This order mandates that every agency in the Federal government take on the problem of corporate concentration. With its initial recommendations, the White House is reshaping a broad range of highly concentrated markets, helping to unlock the full potential of the millions of innovators, producers, and workers that form the bedrock of America’s economic strength and dynamism, while also helping to protect families from price-gouging monopolists in industries ranging from airlines to internet services to medical devices.

“As Franklin Delano Roosevelt put it, ‘We stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the marketplace.’

“This Executive Order, combined with President Biden’s appointment of Lina Khan as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission and his work to end global COVID vaccine monopolies at the World Trade Organization, demonstrates that this Administration understands that building a thriving economy and resilient democracy requires our democratic institutions to disperse economic power in a way that centers smaller businesses, working people, and communities. We look forward to working with the Administration as the EO’s directives are implemented and building on the agenda it lays out.”

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.