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the doj is asking a judge in the Google
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search Monopoly case to force the
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company to sell its Chrome browser as
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part of the remedy Chrome has about 67%
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of the global market and could go for as
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much as 20 billion According to some
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estimates the government also wants to
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stop Google from getting into paid
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agreements with apple and others to be
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the default search engine on phones and
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browsers uh the doj stopped short of
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requesting a full divesture of Android
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Google called The doj Proposal extreme
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and is set to file its own Suggestions
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by December 20th remedy hearings will be
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held in April and the judge judges
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expected to rule over the summer I I
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know you know all these all these uh
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agencies are sort of waiting for what
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happens with Trump although you just
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never know because he's had some anti-
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Google um statements and everything else
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and there'll be a new head of antitrust
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at the justice department it's not clear
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who that's going to be um what do you
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what do you think of this remedy it
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seems like an unusual thing Tech writer
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John grber noted Chrome and Android are
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not Standalone businesses they're
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appendages to Google it's like saying I
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have to sell my left foot it's very
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valuable to me but of no value to anyone
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else um and if a buyer of chrome is a
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company like open a or Microsoft could
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they be accused of creating as you just
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you know another Monopoly with this
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purchase I like this the potential
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remedies were a fine you can't come up
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with fines big enough uh some sort of
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administrator from the government
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bureaucrat that had to they got to go
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into any meeting and tell them why they
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shouldn't do something which they
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basically can ignore stick the stick the
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fat ugly weird kid in the corner and
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then finally a breakup so I I was happy
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to see this now whether it holds or not
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but I I'm not sure I agree with the
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writer because because Chrome you know
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it has about 2/3 Global share I think of
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the browser Market that's so much
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attention um that's so much attention
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that a lot of different people could
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monetize that so it would have no
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shortage of biders it would it would um
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uh immediately stop this default uh you
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know steering everyone towards their
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search engine it'd be more of a
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competition so I like this I think I
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generally find that the FDC and the doj
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and this is because they bring in a lot
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of my colleagues from Business Schools
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are pretty smart about trying to come up
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with solutions that grow the total
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Market uh so I I like this I hope it
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goes I don't know it'll hold yeah you
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know there's so much uncertainty because
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as I said caner is will be leaving John
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caner and Lea Khan's tenure may be over
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or maybe not it's very unclear you might
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get someone like Brandon Carr who's
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making a grab for power at the FCC of
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which didn't have but may be trying to
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do so um there's all kinds of
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uncertainty on who's going to be able to
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run this and then who is going to be the
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antitrust head and it is all in the
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hands of a single judge um who's who
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which then can be appealed Etc and the
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government can stop trying right The
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Government Can Go a different direction
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depending um you know it'll be
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interesting because Sundar Pai the head
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of alphabet was on the phone with Trump
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and of course guess who was on the phone
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with him there's the whole Elon element
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Elon was on a phone call with the CEO of
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alphabet with Trump I mean there's all
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these different competing power centers
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uh happening here
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so I I agree with you I think this
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something should be cleaved off of these
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companies that's to me the only the key
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question is where was Omar Rosa I want
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her back she would she actually seems
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quite credible now no she does I can't
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believe it but she is you're right I
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mean it'll be interesting to see what
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the remedy is but I think the only
00:03:25
remedy is the start to breaking up of
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parts of their businesses and then
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creating new vibrant businesses from
00:03:31
them right it just seems healthier in so
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many ways a Fine's not going to work a
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threatening with prison's not going to
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work you know it's just they should just
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cut them up and create new businesses
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and see what could be made I mean having
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67% of the global market and it does it
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does help their other business I can't
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tell you how many times I open Chrome
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and it says don't you want to make this
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your default browser right I I unsign
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out from Google because it's constantly
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trying to get me sucked into their
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system for no good reason so um it seems
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would rather it be owned by more people
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that's my feel search is arguably
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finished I bet on a gross dollar volume
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basis search maybe the biggest business
00:04:08
in the world it's 150 I think it's like
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a quarter of a trillion dollar business
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but I bet it's got gross margins of 80
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or 90 points and that makes even the
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iPhone look like a distant not not a
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great business so and essentially all of
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this accrets to one player and if you
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didn't have this incredible data
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advantage of looking what everyone is
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doing on the internet two-thirds of the
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time and then be able to steer them
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towards your search engine and then
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extract all sorts of payments to be the
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default you would just have a lot more
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all of a sudden the biggest Market in
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the world wouldn't be a monopoly which
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would ultimately lower rents on everyone
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that has to pay the to that's right and
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search would be better as a product
00:04:48
search and they'd be forced to innovate
00:04:50
they might who knows someone might pop
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up and say this is search that is uh not
00:04:55
going to not going to give this
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information more reach this is we're not
00:05:00
going to let computers create content I
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had Eric Schmidt on and he said
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something I thought was really
00:05:06
insightful he this is a former just for
00:05:07
people who know the former Google head
00:05:09
former alphabet yeah yeah who I think he
00:05:12
never was alphabet but Google but go
00:05:13
ahead oh you're right excuse me um but
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he said something really interesting he
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said humans should have absolutely very
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strong First Amendment Free Speech
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rights but he said computers should not
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and that really struck me as insightful
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because I think a lot of the
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misinformation a lot of the incendiary
00:05:29
cont that polarizes us is not generated
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by a human and I thought that was really
00:05:34
an interesting place to start around all
00:05:37
of this but back to breakups in anti
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trust ask any Economist or ask any
00:05:42
lawyer trying to fight against this what
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breakup in US history did not end up
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being a good idea every time we have
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broken up companies you end up with more
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powerful more valuable companies you end
00:05:57
up with more choice you end up with
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lower rents you end up with more
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Innovation the only person that loses is
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the person who has the controlling
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shareholders or the super voting
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majority shares who want to sit on the
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Iron Throne of not just Westeros but all
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Seven Realms but everybody else every
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other stakeholder the community the tax
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base emplo uh employees they then have
00:06:17
more companies vying to rent their labor
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it's always better it's always better
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look at what's happening even over in
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social media Blue Sky that's that choice
00:06:25
that's you know whether you like threads
00:06:26
or not that's that choice it feels so
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much
00:06:30
people get text to me Blue Sky stuff
00:06:32
yeah everyone's moving over there but
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it's different they have a different
00:06:35
like this is how our place is going to
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be it's not going to be mean and it's
00:06:38
not like that's the whole point of
00:06:40
different things is you get to choose
00:06:43
what you want and that's the true free
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speech that's my feeling is you get to
00:06:46
you know everyone's like you have to be
00:06:48
you know Elon and his gang are pushing
00:06:50
like you have to be on Twitter like no I
00:06:51
don't I can do whatever I want
00:06:54
and if I want to be in a bubble great if
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I don't great like the ability to make
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and choose your own venture to me is the
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the is freedom that's my feeling
