regs to riches

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🥞 anti-competitive
www.regs2riches.com

🥞 anti-competitive

welcome to the land of alright

Vass Bednar
and
Robin Shaban
Jun 21, 2021
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🥞 anti-competitive
www.regs2riches.com
Twitter avatar for @baby2o00
mexie co @baby2o00
I hope this email doesn't find you. I hope you've escaped, that you're free.
5:43 AM ∙ Jun 10, 2021
146,687Likes31,172Retweets


Economist Robin Shaban and I have another piece in the Globe and Mail that I wanted to share. 👇

Twitter avatar for @globebusiness
Report on Business @globebusiness
Canada’s Competition Act needs an overhaul
dlvr.itOpinion: Canada’s Competition Act needs an overhaulCanada’s competition law, which is designed to protect Canadians from monopoly, is woefully ill-suited to the task. It needs to be overhauled
8:33 PM ∙ Jun 20, 2021
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Readers have already directed us to look into consolidation/competition in the hearing aid industry, razor blades, eyeglasses, and postage machines. Keep ‘em coming!

It’s no surprise that we think Canadas competition legislation could benefit from a refresh. We also need more research in the space. We’ve made policy decisions in the pandemic that have privileged larger firms, and haven’t yet been able to fully quantify the implications for independent businesses and entrepreneurship.

Twitter avatar for @essneice
sha not nice @essneice
And why can I buy “non-essentials” from Shoppers Drug Mart and not Walmart???
1:28 PM ∙ May 25, 2021
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After Robin and I attended the Competition Bureau’s Summit a few weeks back. Instead of discussing competition in a digital age or looking at anti-trust innovation and experimentation in other jurisdictions, the discussion veered into “regulation = red tape and red tape is BAD” territory. It was boring, and made me feel like I was on a different policy planet. A keynote from legendary Senator Amy Klobuchar was pre-recorded, so we didn’t have to deal with her asking us: What is up with your approach, Canada?

Twitter avatar for @CompBureau
Competition Bureau Canada @CompBureau
(2/3) Today’s keynote speaker, Amy Klobuchar, had this to say: “Competition policy is economic policy. To me, reforming antitrust law is about rejuvenating capitalism and building a post-pandemic economy that works for all.”
Amy Klobuchar: “Competition policy is economic policy. To me, reforming antitrust law is about rejuvenating capitalism and building a post-pandemic economy that works for all.”
9:44 PM ∙ Jun 3, 2021
4Likes2Retweets

The OECD estimates that absent excessive market power, the incomes of the poorest 20% of Canadians could be 20% greater and the wealth held by the top one percent could be 24% lower.

Twitter avatar for @bpcarney
Bryan Carney @bpcarney
NEW: on Competition Bureau bread price-fixing probe Court files suggest: -Bureau surveilled & raided Maple Leaf Foods HQ -MLF CEO discussed coordination on price for meat -Save-On-Foods,London Drugs owners signed onto group price increase me @TheTyee 1/x
thetyee.caGrocery Giants Discussed Fixing More Than Bread Prices, Court Files Suggest | The TyeeDocuments reveal feds raided Maple Leaf Foods and raise questions about co-ordinated meat pricing and involvement of BC chains in bread price setting.
10:49 PM ∙ Jun 14, 2021
14Likes17Retweets

Twitter avatar for @margaretomara
Margaret O'Mara @margaretomara
Similar consolidation happened in Great Depression, which helped build political momentum for organized labor as well as more vigorous antitrust enforcement
Twitter avatar for @DanPriceSeattle
Dan Price @DanPriceSeattle
Amazon: profit up 100% Walmart: profit up 80% Target: profit up 80% Lowe's: profit up 74% Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google: stock at record high Small businesses: 21% closed; revenue for rest down 30% We're seeing a monumental wealth transfer from mom & pops to conglomerates.
1:42 PM ∙ Aug 21, 2020
220Likes80Retweets

Twitter avatar for @econliberties
American Economic Liberties Project @econliberties
💥 BIG NEWS 💥 Today is the launch of Access to Markets — a new initiative to build and support a community of entrepreneurs, businesses, and investors to fight for fair, competitive markets. accesstomarkets.org
Image
2:16 PM ∙ Jun 14, 2021
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FWIW, there have been a few promising steps taken by our own Competition Bureau to evolve the nation’s approach in the space: for one, Canada is funding the “OECD Gender Inclusive Competition Policy project,” examining how a gender lens could help deliver more effective competition policy. Last summer, the Bureau also launched a market study into Canada’s health care sector, centering on Canadians’ access to virtual health care products and services. These are worthwhile initiatives that are tangential to the urgent need to modernize the Competition Act.

Robin and I have also been a little bullied by Bay Street for our scholarship and advocacy - which is uncool yet gloriously motivating. Indeed, when long-time actors in the competition policy space coordinate to extinguish and discount the voices of new entrants they display the very same behaviour of monopolist ruffians that are intolerant of upstart competitors and reveal themselves to be intellectually anti-competitive.

Twitter avatar for @sandeepvaheesan
Sandeep Vaheesan @sandeepvaheesan
Critics of antimonopoly rely on caricatures like "big is bad policy is back," but the actual debate is over how businesses can grow. An economy in which firms grow through M&A is very different than one in which they grow through hiring, investment, and invention.
2:40 PM ∙ Jun 4, 2021
111Likes21Retweets

ICYMI: A couple of weeks ago, I had a great conversation with Matt Stoller and Ali Haberstroh about competition policy trends and independent businesses.

Twitter avatar for @VassB
Vass Bednar @VassB
ICYMI, you can catch up through the video 📺. Find out what makes Ali so powerful 💪, if Canada is the land of moose, maple syrup + monopoly 🇨🇦, and what happens when Little House on the Prairie meets Jurassic Park: crowdcast.io/e/tplstollerha…
crowdcast.ioBig Tech, Monopolies and Imagining Alternatives - CrowdcastVass Bednar speaks with Matt Stoller and Ali Haberstroh about the implications of monopoly power on democracy and new business models for digital platforms.
5:58 PM ∙ Jun 11, 2021

*You can watch/listen to the interview here. 📺


Vass Bednar is the Executive Director of McMaster University’s new Master of Public Policy in Digital Society Program.

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Dr Helen Robertson
Jun 23, 2021Liked by Vass Bednar

I call it the Land Of Mediocrity although in fairness many other countries are now competing for that title including sadly those of my REAL home Europe.

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Dr Helen Robertson
Jun 23, 2021Liked by Vass Bednar

Hi

Galen Weston owns 1 in 5 Pharmacies in Canada

Ontario pays Pharmacies

$15 per jab

Alberta

$24 per jab

OHIP pays Primary Care Provider $4 per jab (sorry might be 5 yrs out of date)

Also Primary Care Providers have not been getting the amount of Annual Vaccines they order from Public health. Witness the fight by Primary Care for COVID vaccine - see Dr Nili Kaplan Myrth

For at least the past 2 years Annual Influenza doses are distributed to PHARMACIES FIRST Supplies to FPs are late and less. than the number of doses the Fps requested from Public Health

5 Million Canadians have no Family Doctor ( 20yrs ago 1 in 3 of population of Moncton NB had no family Doc)

There is no requirement for Medicare to provide a Primary Care Provider for each person in Canada( Unlike NHS)

There are no defined requirements for access to care in Canada. eg NHS 90% of patients should be seen within 4 hours in A and E (Emerg.) UK citizens know this - GOV.UK info available and easily navigated by anyone. When there are problems Citizens complain loud and long to the Government NOT the Health Care Provider

UK has a representative Union of Physicians - GMC.

Canada has no representative group of Physicians and forming a Union not legal

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