Figuring out who to thank after Liberty from All Masters is a different challenge than after my first two books. I wrote End of the Line and Cornered largely alone, composing chapters on long reporting drives across the country, refining sentences while strolling down the Mall. But for the last decade, I have helped to lead a debate on power and democracy that has cascaded from Washington to Silicon Valley to Brussels and elsewhere. The book in your hand was deeply shaped by the clashes of these years. It holds many lessons from friends, and some from foes.
One big change from ten years ago is I spend most days working to keep an organization alive. By the time I published Cornered in 2010, I knew that writing books was not enough. To counter the intellectual regime devised by George Stigler, Milton Friedman, Richard Posner, and Robert Bork, with its Orwellian repackaging of control as freedom, I knew we needed institutions as well as ideas. That’s why in the leanest days of the Great Recession I set out to create an organization smart enough to counter the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, economics academy, and all other propagandists of monopoly and top-down control.
Building the Open Markets Institute was harder than writing any book. But it was worth it. From the first, our team of reporters, lawyers, historians, and organizers has served as the vital center for the ever-widening community of people dedicated to restoring the American System of Liberty. Forbes recently called Open Markets a “formidable counterweight” to the platform monopolists. And despite our modest size, we are formidable. That’s because truth is cheap. What costs real money is to make a lie stick.
That’s why, in thinking of whom to thank, my mind turned first to the folks who worked hardest to build and protect Open Markets. Four stand out—Phil Longman, Marcellus Andrews, Lina Khan, and Nidhi Hegde. Each has their own particular form of true genius. But what makes these four such heroes is that even during difficult times for Open Markets, they calmly focused on the well-being of the institution. Our team has won a lot of glory. But we’ve also had to figure out how to raise money, cooperate with allies, engage constructively with opponents, and work together in a grubby room in a WeWork. Not all teams survive this period. Thanks to Phil, Marcellus, Lina, and Nidhi, Open Markets has thrived.
Much the same is true of Joe Maxwell and Frank Foer, two other members of our board who devoted long hours to a fragile institution. My thanks also to Christy Hoffman and Laura Quinn, our powerful new board members. And to Beth Grupp, the best mind in the development business.
I am indebted to every member of Open Markets. My longtime friends Sandeep Vaheesan and Sally Hubbard are outstanding antitrust thinkers. This book is also infused with the spirit and ingenuity of Claire Kelloway, Kat Dill, Michael Bloom, Jody Brannon, Gina Salerno, Udit Thakir, Garphil Julien, Daniel Hanley, Beth Baltzin, Nikki Usher, and Mya Frazier. The same is true also for many former members of Open Markets, including Leah Douglass, Brian Feldman, Sidhartha Mahanta, Matt Buck, Laura Hitalsky, Stella Roque, Kevin Carty, Austin Frerick, Jonathan Tsoris, Sarah Miller, and Matt Stoller.
In writing Liberty from All Masters, I was thrilled to work again with Adam Bellow and Rafe Sagalyn. Adam and I have been conspiring to write this book for a long while. Rafe is the coolest agent in the business, and the most efficient; it took him all of three minutes to come up with the title. I have also very much enjoyed working with Pronoy Sarkar and the rest of the excellent team at St. Martin’s.
I owe huge debts to Sabeel Rahman, Richard John, Gerald Berk, Lina Khan, Marcellus Andrews, and Christopher Leonard for close readings of Liberty from All Masters. Their suggestions and reactions made the book richer and stronger.
Liberty from All Masters would not have been possible without the vision of the two great muckraker publishers of the early twenty-first century—Rick MacArthur of Harper’s and Paul Glastris of the Washington Monthly.
The book also reflects the insights of many other friends and allies. This includes Bert Foer, Teddy Downey, Stacy Mitchell, and Tom Frank, all there at the beginning.
Other early leaders in the fight against monopoly, all close friends, include Doug Preston, Rana Foroohar, Alan Riley, Christian D’Cunha, Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen, Luther Lowe, Jonathan Kanter, Sascha Meinrath, Tim Wu, Mike Callicrate, Phillip Blond, Maurice Glasman, Alec Burnside, Zephyr Teachout, Roger McNamee, David Dayen, Tim Cowen, Jonathan Taplin, Maurice Stucke, John Kwoka, Ariel Ezrachi, Jonathan Sallet, Max Miller, Thea Lee, Jonathan Tepper, Tristan Harris, Marc Rotenberg, Ruth Vitale, Paul Pisano, Patrick Woodall, Patty Lovera, Zach Carter, Angela Huffman, Jonathan Rutherford, Paul Hilder, and Fred Stokes.
Cristina Caffarra, Bill Kovacic, Luigi Zingales, and Guy Rolnik deserve special credit. Not only are they experts on the dangers of monopoly, they do the hard work of organizing discussions.
Thanks also to the journalists who have led the way in addressing America’s monopoly crisis. This includes Ken Vogel, Nancy Scola, Nick Thompson, David Streitfeld, David Leonhardt, Farhad Manjoo, Luke Mullins, Andy Kroll, Anya Bourg, Tony Romm, David McCabe, Gilad Edelman, and many others.
Ten years ago there was no market for our work on Capitol Hill. Senator Warren, Representative Cicilline, Senator Franken, and Representative Ellison changed that, by being the first to highlight the dangers of monopoly. Senator Booker, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Warner, Senator Sanders, Representative Khanna, Senator Rubio, Representative Nadler, Representative Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Hawley have also all played hugely important roles. So too Tish James, Ken Paxton, and state attorneys general across America. Rohit Chopra showed us how to change the course of the FTC. Tom Perriello showed us how to change the course of a state.
I have been repeatedly inspired by the work of Andrea Dehlendorf, Lauren Jacobs, Nafisa Ula, Deb Axt, Jill Hurst, Maurice Weeks, and Dan Schlademan and many other members of the Athena coalition.
I am deeply grateful to Paul Krugman for giving us a huge boost by writing about our work in December 2012. Thanks also to Paul Romer and Ha-Joon Chang for critical support. And none of this would have been possible without the friendship of Reid Cramer, Mark Schmitt, and others at New America.
I want to especially thank the people who kept Open Markets up and running. This includes Vera Franz, Anamitra Deb, Allison Barlow, Herb Sandler, John and Laura Arnold, Alberto Ibarguen, Chris Hughes, Larry Kramer, Tom Kruse, Laleh Ispahani, Sam Gill, Lori McGlinchy, Jose Garcia, Gus Rossi, Jennifer Harris, Sharon Alpert, Laura Campos, Ila Duncan, John Sands, Stephen Heintz, Lance Lindblom, Peter Teague, Amber French, Jason Weins, Taylor Jo Isenberg, Richard DeWyngaert, Steve Daetz, and Dan Burger. Others I can’t mention. You know who you are. You know how grateful we are.
One thing that has never changed is the support I’ve received from Anya, my wife. Until we create an asylum where authors can work through their madness in isolation, the burden of writing will fall hardest on the family. This is Anya’s third walk through this valley. All I can offer in return is my love.
Last, thanks to my dad for making me ornery. And for showing me how to walk straight ahead, even in the hardest of times.