© 2024 NPR Illinois
The Capital's Community & News Service
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Antitrust 2: The Paradox

Robert Bork is shown in 1987. (AP Photo)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Bork is shown in 1987. (AP Photo)

This is the second episode in our series on the history of competition, big business and antitrust law in America. Quick recap:

A little more than a hundred years ago, the Supreme Court broke up the Standard Oil company. It was a turning point in the balance of power between enormous companies and the free market. We told that story in the first episode of the series.

In the decades after that, the government got more and more aggressive—intervening in the free market more and more until a lawyer named Robert Bork completely transformed the way antitrust law works in America, and paved the way for today's tech giants.

Music: "Galactic Force," "Pyramid Thoughts," "Edge of Fear" and "Magic Voyage."

Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Subscribe to our show onApple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Kenny Malone hails from Meadville, PA where the zipper was invented, where Clark Gable’s mother is buried and where, in 2007, a wrecking ball broke free from a construction site, rolled down North Main Street and somehow wound up inside the trunk of a Ford Taurus sitting at a red light.
Kenny Malone
Kenny Malone is a correspondent for NPR's Planet Money podcast. Before that, he was a reporter for WNYC's Only Human podcast. Before that, he was a reporter for Miami's WLRN. And before that, he was a reporter for his friend T.C.'s homemade newspaper, Neighborhood News.
Jacob Goldstein is an NPR correspondent and co-host of the Planet Money podcast. He is the author of the book Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.