What began as a love affair is now a relationship on the rocks. This week on Politics with Amy Walter, a look at the relationship between Democrats and big tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
When it comes to big tech, the conversation has shifted from if they should be regulated to how and by whom. For a long time, these tech giants grew quickly and quietly beyond what many of us could’ve imagined. As a result, incredible wealth and power started to concentrate in Silicon Valley, largely unchecked by Congress.
Tim Wu, the author of The Curse of Bigness and a professor at Columbia University, explains how big tech companies became embedded in the social and economic fabric of our country. Senator Mark Warner is one of a growing number of Democrats who are critical of how much power big tech has amassed, and he shares his ideas on how to rein them in on today’s show. Representative Ro Khanna, the Democrat who represents Silicon Valley in Congress, walks us through the adversarial nature of the relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.
Plus, Cecilia Kang, a tech reporter at the New York Times, gives an update on the antitrust investigations going on. Finally, journalist and author Charles Duhigg explains the spectacular growth of Amazon, from its early days as an online retailer to the tech giant it is today.
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Guests:
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Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.
Amazon has already successfully extended its reach into e-books, the cloud and instant streaming music and video. Now the tech giant is reportedly setting its sights on becoming a global logistics company, the likes of which would compete head on with UPS and FedEx.
Internal Amazon documents reveal a plan for a global delivery network with the goal of expediting goods traveling between China and the U.S.
John Wells is former CFO for PepsiCo and Frito Lay and is currently professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. He says for an online retailer, efficient logistics are critical, and the U.S. is way behind its competitors.
What you’ll learn from this segment:
How Amazon’s core business model has changed in recent years.
Why Amazon believes they can compete in the international logistics services market.
How this new business strategy may play out over the next 18 months.