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Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan\u2019s aggressive antitrust stance during the Biden administration has made her a lightning rod in Corporate America and among top Democratic Party donors. <\/p>\n
Now with the presidential campaign in its final weeks, the election\u2019s outcome and the potential impact on the economy are top of mind.<\/p>\n
In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times<\/em><\/a> that was published on Saturday, Khan looked back on her tenure and was asked about what could happen if Kamala Harris wins the election.<\/p>\n Regarding the race for the White House, Khan was pressed on whether she worries her work might get cut short, given doubts about whether she might stay on in the next administration.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t predict what\u2019s going to happen in November, or after that,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n Then she was asked if she has gotten any indication that she would not be wanted in a Harris administration.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I think to the contrary,\u201d Khan said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the vice president note how she has been a prosecutor taking on illegal practices by corporations that were harming homeowners, that were harming patients, and that\u2019s the work the FTC does as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The Harris campaign didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Some billionaire donors to the Harris campaign<\/a> have reportedly urged her to dump Khan and SEC Chair Gary Gensler\u00a0if she wins in November. <\/p>\n For its part, another Trump administration may also look unfavorably on mega-mergers, especially in the tech sector. Donald Trump\u2019s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has voiced support for Khan in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t agree with Lina Khan on every issue, to be clear, but I think that she\u2019s been very smart about trying to go after some of these big tech companies that monopolize what we\u2019re allowed to say in our own country,\u201d he said on CBS last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Khan technically reached the end of her three-year term on Wednesday, she can keep serving in the role until a replacement takes over.<\/p>\n Earlier in the Q&A with the Times<\/em>, she took stock of her record and said the FTC has \u201cracked up a lot of wins,\u201d including a court victory in a vertical merger case and a ruling in a consumer-privacy case against a data broker.<\/p>\n She also expressed skepticism about the argument that a larger company\u2019s acquisition of a smaller company can bring more efficiencies to the market by pairing sufficient financial resources with new innovations.<\/p>\n Such efficiencies often don\u2019t materialize, Khan said, adding that even when they do, companies don\u2019t pass them on to consumers if there isn\u2019t enough competition in the market.<\/p>\n That begged the question of whether the post-pandemic inflation surge was fueled in part by industry consolidation and anticompetitive practices.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not enforcing antitrust, you\u2019re allowing decades of consolidation that can create inflationary spikes more readily, because your system as a whole is less resilient to that disruption,\u201d Khan said. \u201cSecond, a more concentrated market, when you have fewer players, is more easily going to be able to coordinate to hike prices or to keep prices high.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n