Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula discuss the growing antitrust threats to business freedom and the anti-American ideas behind them.
Among the topics covered:
· 0:00 Introduction
· 1:52 How antitrust measures under the Biden and Trump administrations have threatened business across the board;
· 10:32 Why Trump is enforcing antitrust laws so aggressively;
· 15:43 How antitrust chief Gail Slater distorts facts to rationalize business persecution;
· 22:54 Why antitrust laws betray America’s founding principles;
· 29:10 Why “America First” is a collectivist slogan for protectionism;
· 36:09 Why accusations of politicization wrongly assume that antitrust laws can be enforced objectively;
· 50:16 How the mixed economy breeds pressure group warfare, and what business should do about it.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” and “The Pull Peddlers,” Onkar Ghate and Don Watkins’ book Profit Without Apology: The Need to Stand Up for Business, ARI’s “Open Letter to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Team,” and Marek Michulka’s “Antitrust Criminalizes Google’s Productive Virtue.”
The podcast was recorded on August 21, 2025 and posted on September 4, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.
Subscribe to ARI’s YouTube channel to make sure you never miss a video:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=AynRandInstitute
Download or stream free courses on Ayn Rand’s works and ideas with the Ayn Rand Institute app:
– App Store itunes.apple.com/us/app/ayn-rand-university/id1452535178?mt=8
– Google Play play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aynrandu
ARI is funded by donor contributions. You can support our work by becoming an ARI Member or making a one-time contribution: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Explore these ideas further! ARI's online publication, New Ideal, explores pressing cultural issues from the perspective of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism: newideal.aynrand.org
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Subscribe to the ARI Live! podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ayn-rand-institute-live/id1440399458
******
Join an upcoming virtual or in-person event: ari.aynrand.org/events
Visit ARI’s website for more about our content and programs: ari.aynrand.org
In this episode of The Ayn Rand Institute Podcast, Ben Bayer and Robertas Bakula discuss the growing antitrust threats to business freedom and the anti-American ideas behind them.
Among the topics covered:
· 0:00 Introduction
· 1:52 How antitrust measures under the Biden and Trump administrations have threatened business across the board;
· 10:32 Why Trump is enforcing antitrust laws so aggressively;
· 15:43 How antitrust chief Gail Slater distorts facts to rationalize business persecution;
· 22:54 Why antitrust laws betray America’s founding principles;
· 29:10 Why “America First” is a collectivist slogan for protectionism;
· 36:09 Why accusations of politicization wrongly assume that antitrust laws can be enforced objectively;
· 50:16 How the mixed economy breeds pressure group warfare, and what business should do about it.
Recommended in this podcast are Ayn Rand’s essays “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business” and “The Pull Peddlers,” Onkar Ghate and Don Watkins’ book Profit Without Apology: The Need to Stand Up for Business, ARI’s “Open Letter to Google’s Sundar Pichai and Team,” and Marek Michulka’s “Antitrust Criminalizes Google’s Productive Virtue.”
The podcast was recorded on August 21, 2025 and posted on September 4, 2025. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Watch archived podcasts here.
Subscribe to ARI’s YouTube channel to make sure you never miss a video:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=AynRandInstitute
Download or stream free courses on Ayn Rand’s works and ideas with the Ayn Rand Institute app:
– App Store itunes.apple.com/us/app/ayn-rand-university/id1452535178?mt=8
– Google Play play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aynrandu
ARI is funded by donor contributions. You can support our work by becoming an ARI Member or making a one-time contribution: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Explore these ideas further! ARI's online publication, New Ideal, explores pressing cultural issues from the perspective of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism: newideal.aynrand.org
******
Keep in Touch! Sign up to receive email updates from ARI: aynrand.org/signup
Follow ARI on Twitter: twitter.com/AynRandInst
Follow ARI on Facebook: facebook.com/AynRandInstitute
Follow ARI on Instagram: instagram.com/aynrandorg
Subscribe to the ARI Live! podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ayn-rand-institute-live/id1440399458
******
Join an upcoming virtual or in-person event: ari.aynrand.org/events
Visit ARI’s website for more about our content and programs: ari.aynrand.org
