Pragmatic, Progressive Capitalism

Reforming the nation’s century-old antitrust regulation is critical to ensuring a fair marketplace, and limiting the harm monopolistic practices can have on American consumers. However, the dire need for updated legislation does not mean Congress should pass legislation that is not carefully thought out for the long-term. This report examines the decades around the turn of the 20^th century, when the US adopted the two pillars on which a uniquely American and remarkably successful political economy was built – the Interstate Commerce Act of (ICA) 1887 and the Sherman Act of 1890. These two acts were quickly extended to the telecommunications sector, which is at the heart of the contemporary debate, with the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, which extended the authority of the ICA to telecommunications. The report dives into the complexity of the current situation and concludes that the policy principles needed today to prevent big data platforms and big broadband networks from strangling and distorting the development of the digital communications sector are the same principles applied to ensure the success of the 2^nd Industrial Revolution in America a century ago. The Brandeis-Stiglitz model of pragmatic, progressive capitalism meets the challenge.