Tater bot

Summary

Today, Explained: "Tater Bot" Episode Summary

Release Date: February 12, 2025
Hosts: Sean Rameswaram and Noel King
Network: Vox Media Podcast Network

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Introduction to Frozen Potatoes and Economic Implications

[00:00 - 00:50]
Hosts Sean Rameswaram and Vivian Tu kick off the episode by highlighting an unexpected yet significant topic: frozen potatoes. They suggest that the state of the frozen potato industry mirrors broader economic challenges in the United States, including rising costs, housing shortages, and governmental regulatory issues with big tech.

Sean Rameswaram ([00:23]): "Frozen potatoes can tell us a lot about why things cost what they cost... about how our government has failed to do much to regulate big tech and why it's high time we hash it all out."

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The Frozen Potato Price Fixing Scandal

The Emergence of Price Fixing

[02:11 - 06:28]
Sean Ramis introduces Katya Schwenk, a reporter investigating the frozen potato industry. Vivian Tu explains that four dominant companies—Lamb Weston Holdings, Cavendish Farms, and others—control 97% of the market, leading to allegations of price fixing.

Vivian Tu ([02:25]): "There are only four companies that control 97% of this market and what people say that has led to is price fixing, including to keep the prices of your french fries very high."

Case Study: Josh Saltzman and Ivy and Coney Bar

[02:25 - 05:21]
The story centers on Josh Saltzman, owner of Ivy and Coney, a sports bar in Washington, D.C. Two years prior, Josh noticed that all his potato suppliers increased their prices simultaneously by the same amount—a clear sign of price collusion. His viral tweets brought attention to the issue, leading to private lawsuits from various stakeholders affected by the price hikes.

Vivian Tu ([03:38]): "Amazing how all of the major suppliers for french fries and the like are all raising their prices at the same time and by the same amount. Totally not collusion or anything. Right?"

Mechanism of Price Fixing: The Role of "Potato Track"

[05:21 - 07:33]
Vivian Tu delves into how these companies allegedly used a data-sharing platform named "Potato Track" to synchronize their pricing strategies without direct collusion. This tool allowed competitors to access each other's confidential pricing information, effectively reducing competition and enabling price fixing.

Vivian Tu ([06:28]): "These are not big brand name companies because they're not usually selling their Products to consumers... but the lawsuits allege that... Potato Track... has done a lot to reduce competition in this market."

Economic Impact and Legal Actions

[07:33 - 10:42]
Sean Ramis and Vivian Tu discuss the significant price increases—up to 50% from July 2022 to July 2024—justified initially by operational costs but sustained even after costs decreased. Class action lawsuits have been filed against the controlling companies, accusing them of forming a "potato cartel."

Vivian Tu ([07:44]): "Prices have gone up really significantly. They actually increased by almost 50%... but those costs have since gone down and the prices have stayed high."

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Broader Implications: Algorithms and Modern Price Fixing

Introduction to Algorithmic Price Fixing

[13:56 - 18:25]
Bill Baer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and former head of antitrust enforcement at the FTC, joins the discussion. He expands the conversation beyond potatoes, explaining how pricing algorithms are facilitating price fixing across various industries, including poultry and real estate.

Bill Baer ([14:25]): "The government enforcement agencies, the antitrust enforcers are very worried that this use of pricing algorithms is growing."

Historical Context and Comparison

[16:40 - 18:08]
Baer provides historical examples of price fixing before the digital age, such as Toys R Us colluding with retailers and airlines manipulating fares through third-party platforms. These cases illustrate that while the methods have evolved, the essence of anti-competitive behavior remains unchanged.

Bill Baer ([17:24]): "The government was able to stop the behavior, and private plaintiffs acting on behalf of injured consumers were able to secure monetary relief."

Challenges with Current Antitrust Laws

[19:39 - 22:54]
The hosts and Baer discuss the inadequacy of existing antitrust laws in addressing sophisticated algorithm-driven price fixing. Senator Amy Klobuchar introduces legislative efforts aimed at updating these laws to account for modern technological advancements.

Bill Baer ([19:39]): "Joe Biden once famously said, capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it's exploitation."

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Legislative Responses: Senator Amy Klobuchar's Bill

Overview of the Proposed Legislation

[20:07 - 24:56]
Senator Amy Klobuchar outlines her bill targeting algorithmic price fixing. The legislation seeks to prohibit landlords and other competitors from sharing data through centralized platforms that facilitate coordinated pricing strategies. Klobuchar emphasizes that while algorithms can enhance efficiency, their misuse poses significant threats to market competition and consumer welfare.

Amy Klobuchar ([20:25]): "It's against the antitrust laws. But what do we have now? We have high price, sophisticated price fixing."

Rationale and Enforcement

Klobuchar argues that updating antitrust laws is essential to keep pace with technological innovations. She highlights the importance of not stifling beneficial technologies while preventing their misuse in anti-competitive practices.

Amy Klobuchar ([22:54]): "Our laws are just not as sophisticated as those marketplaces. So you should make adjustments."

Comparative Success and Future Outlook

Drawing parallels with past successes in antitrust enforcement, Klobuchar is optimistic that her bill will effectively curb algorithm-driven price fixing and restore competitive practices in various industries.

Amy Klobuchar ([24:28]): "It's not just passing bills, Sean. We can do that, but it's also ours. Is the law being enforced? Are they actually bringing actions?"

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Conclusion: The Path Forward

[24:56 - End]
The episode wraps up by emphasizing the need for updated legislative frameworks to address the complexities introduced by modern algorithms in price setting. The hosts encourage listeners to stay informed and engaged with ongoing antitrust discussions to ensure fair market practices and protect consumer interests.

Sean Rameswaram ([25:04]): "Today, explained Bill Baer from Brookings. Peter Balinon Rosen made our show today. We miss him already."

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Key Takeaways

• Market Consolidation and Price Fixing: A handful of companies control the majority of the frozen potato market, leading to coordinated price increases through platforms like "Potato Track."

• Algorithmic Influence: Modern algorithms facilitate intricate price fixing across various industries, making traditional antitrust laws insufficient.

• Legislative Action: Proposed bills, notably by Senator Amy Klobuchar, aim to update antitrust regulations to address the challenges posed by algorithm-driven price strategies.

• Consumer Impact: Price fixing, whether through direct collusion or algorithmic coordination, ultimately harms consumers by keeping prices artificially high and stifling competition.

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Notable Quotes

• Sean Rameswaram ([00:23]): "Frozen potatoes can tell us a lot about why things cost what they cost... about how our government has failed to do much to regulate big tech and why it's high time we hash it all out."

• Vivian Tu ([03:38]): "Amazing how all of the major suppliers for french fries and the like are all raising their prices at the same time and by the same amount. Totally not collusion or anything. Right?"

• Bill Baer ([19:39]): "Joe Biden once famously said, capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it's exploitation."

• Amy Klobuchar ([20:25]): "It's against the antitrust laws. But what do we have now? We have high price, sophisticated price fixing."

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This episode of "Today, Explained" sheds light on the often-overlooked issue of price fixing in the frozen potato industry and its broader implications in today's algorithm-driven economy. By examining specific cases and legislative responses, the podcast underscores the pressing need for updated antitrust laws to safeguard competitive markets and consumer interests.

Transcript

[Sean Ramis]

On the show today, we're gonna talk about potatoes po potato, frozen potatoes in particular.

[Vivian Tu]

Tonight's forecast, a freeze is coming.

[Sean Ramis]

We're gonna talk about frozen potatoes because they actually have a lot to say about where the country's at right now.

[Vivian Tu]

Brixton's baked potatoes mascot, you see it there? It's the Tater Trump.

[Sean Ramis]

Frozen potatoes can tell us a lot about why things cost what they cost, about why it sometimes feels like the odds are stack consumers, about why it sometimes feels impossible to find an apartment to rent in the United States, about how our government has failed to do much to regulate big tech and why it's high time we hash it all out. Good luck.

[Vivian Tu]

Live in peace. Go ahead, please.

[Sean Ramis]

Tater bots Coming up on Today. Explained.

[Vivian Tu]

I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can. 1, 2, 3.

[Bill Baer]

Will that be cash or credit?

[Vivian Tu]

Credit.

[Sean Ramis]

4 Galaxy S25 Ultra, the AI companion that does the heavy lifting. So you can do you get [e-mail] compatible with select apps. Requires Google Gemini account results may vary based on input. Check responses for accuracy.

[Vivian Tu]

This isn't your grandpa's finance podcast. It's Vivian Tu, your rich BFF and host of the Net Worth and Chill podcast. This is money talk that's actually fun, actually relatable, and will actually make you money. I'm breaking down investments, side hustles and wealth strategies. No boring spreadsheets, just real talk that'll have you leveling up your financial game with amazing guests like Glenda Baker. There's never been any house that I've sold in the last 32 years that's not worth more today than it was the day that I sold it. This is a money podcast that you'll actually want to listen to. Follow Net Worth and Chill. Wherever you listen to podcasts, your bank account will thank you later.

[Amy Klobuchar]

You're listening to TODAY Explains.

[Sean Ramis]

This is it today. Explain or try explain? Explain. Duh. Explained. Sean Ramis for I'm here with Katya Schwenk, reporter at the Lever, who has been investigating what is going on in the frozen potato industry.

[Vivian Tu]

There are only four companies that control 97% of this market and what people say that has led to is price fixing, including to keep the prices of your french fries very high.

[Sean Ramis]

Katja says this big story starts with a kind of small fry. A guy named Josh.

[Vivian Tu]

Josh Saltzman is The owner of a small, sort of divey sports bar in Washington, D.C. called Ivy and Coney. Josh, you know, like many bar owners, he's getting his French fries from food distributors, which are buying them from these frozen potato companies. And a couple years ago, Josh gets a notice from this food distributor he works with saying, you know, these, you know, three or four big companies that are selling you your French fries, they're all raising the price of their product, and they're all raising them by the same amount, by 12 cents a pound. All effective, like, the same week or the same day. And, you know, Josh was like, you know, that's really weird. He goes online, he writes a few tweets saying, you know, this looks a lot like price mixing. Looks a lot like pollution.

[Sean Ramis]

You know, amazing how all of the major suppliers for french fries and the like are all raising their prices at the same time and by the same amount. Totally not collusion or anything. Right?

[Vivian Tu]

Baked potato. Is this. Is this what's going on?

[Sean Ramis]

Big potato. Not to be confused with baked potato, yes. Okay. So Josh takes to the Internet. He sees all of the prices of potatoes going up, but also by the exact same amount. And he says, something's going on here.

[Vivian Tu]

In this moment of frustration, he's like, it's happening in this way that looks really a lot like price fixing. I'm gonna go online and write some tweets about it. The tweets go viral, and then no one really talks about it for a couple years. Two years later, Josh's tweets show up cited in this, like, series of private lawsuits calling out price fixing in this frozen potato industry.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Huh.

[Vivian Tu]

So, you know, but, you know, he was not the only one to have been harmed by this, because all of these lawsuits are being brought with the help of, you know, these antitrust lawyers by grocery store chains, restaurants, food suppliers all around the country who are saying, like, these prices are going up. They're going up in lockstep, and it's hurting our bottom lines.

[Sean Ramis]

When we talk about the potato companies, who are we talking about? Would people know the names of these companies? Are they, you know, like, everyday companies that you see at the grocery store?

[Vivian Tu]

These are companies that are a little bit behind the scenes. Their names are Lamb Weston Holdings, Cavendish Farms. Probably you're unfamiliar with them if you are a layperson.

[Sean Ramis]

I've heard of Cavendish.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Okay.

[Sean Ramis]

Yeah.

[Vivian Tu]

You know, like, they are part of bigger agricultural conglomerates in the case of Cavendish Farms. But, you know, these are not big brand name companies because they're not usually selling their Products to consumers. At the grocery store, you're not going to be going to buy your frozen french fries. They have sort of this niche of the market where they are buying potatoes from growers and then they are preparing those pre preparing those potatoes and selling them mostly to big restaurant chains. Presumably this is, you know, free market. They're competing with each other. In reality, what the lawsuits allege is that because this market is so, so consolidated, it sort of allowed these companies to sort of collude tacitly to fix prices by feeding their information into this data sharing platform that allows them to share confidential information about prices. Yes, it's actually called Potato Track, if you can believe that. You know, so that has done a lot to reduce competition in this market.

[Sean Ramis]

Unlike Nike and Adidas maybe, for example, the big potato firms are essentially using the same software to fix the price of potato. And that software is perfectly titled Potato Track. How does it work?

[Vivian Tu]

That is right. Yeah. This is actually something of a trend in a lot of the big anti monopoly cases that we're seeing, whether it's like from meat processors to sugar, are looking at the rise of these third party data platforms that allow companies in the industry to sort of feed information. So things like their labor costs, their operational costs, their prices for different products. And once that it is in this platform, the platform shares that information among the rivals. So it's a way for executives to share the kind of confidential pricing information that you need to do to fix prices without having to like gather together secretly and conspire to fix them. Which is like against the law.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Yeah.

[Sean Ramis]

It's hard to imagine something called Potato Track being illegal. But can you give us an idea of how expensive Potato Track might be making potatoes?

[Vivian Tu]

Yeah. So prices have gone up really significantly. They actually increased by almost 50% from July 2022 to July 2024. Companies sort of initially justified by pointing to higher operational costs, supply chain pandemic stuff, but those costs have since gone down and the prices have stayed high.

[Sean Ramis]

So this whole time people might have thought my frozen potatoes cost more because of Joe Biden. And really it was because of potentially Potato Track.

[Vivian Tu]

Right. In fact, you had the wrong villain, potentially.

[Sean Ramis]

People got really mad at Joe Biden. Have people gotten really mad at like Cavendish and Potato Track and all the rest?

[Vivian Tu]

So over the last like three months, starting in November of last year, we have seen a bunch of cases against these four companies. Class action lawsuits were filed in Illinois against four food producers.

[Sean Ramis]

You're being called the potato cartel.

[Bill Baer]

Prosecutors say the companies formed a cartel by Having equal access to each other's data on pricing and other sensitive information.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Cane Foods, Cavendish Farms, lamb Weston and J.R. simplet. These are the companies that tried to create a monopoly on our favorite fried food grocery stores.

[Vivian Tu]

Restaurants like bars like Josh's have banded together and they have sued for damages saying, you know, these companies price fixing has hurt our bottom lines.

[Sean Ramis]

Has Big Potato spoken about this publicly? Have they said anything to try and ease the public's concerns? The price of frozen potatoes?

[Vivian Tu]

Yeah, they've actually been quite, they've said very little. I had one of the companies get back to me saying, you know, we completely deny all of these claims. The rest haven't said anything. Baby Potato remains silent on this issue. For now. They're not saying much.

[Sean Ramis]

And what does that mean for Josh in the bar in D.C. and all of us? Are we going to be able to get cheaper french fries and hash browns and all the rest anytime soon?

[Vivian Tu]

Right. I mean I think that's where this speaks to this bigger problem, right? Of like if we are living in a world with really lax anti monopoly enforcement, we are living in a world where companies are sort of allowed to like price fix and you know, buy up all of these markets and ag, the agriculture supply chains remain as they are. These are the bigger systemic issues. It's hard to know, hard to say if we'll be able to get cheaper french fries until they are solved. But for now, you know, Josh's bar is doing fine. They're still making it work with the french fries they have. So you know, and I think at least the fact that people are talking about this issue has brought a little bit of hope.

[Sean Ramis]

Katja Schwinklebernews.com the government, at least parts of it, would like to do something about algorithms. We're going to tell you about it when we return on Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Shopify. Business owners have a lot of spinning plates to balance. Frankly, it's kind of amazing that anyone is crazy enough to take on the challenge of starting a company. If you think about it, you've got to create a great product, manage a team, reach customers and so much more. It's a lot. Luckily there are platforms out there designed to take some of those responsibilities off of your spinning plate. Companies like Shopify. Shopify is an all in one digital commerce platform that wants to help your business sell better than ever before. It doesn't matter if your customers spend their time scrolling through your feed or strolling past your physical storefront. Shopify says they can help you convert browsers into buyers and sell more over time and their Shop Pay feature can boost conversions by 50%. Want to upgrade your business and get the same checkout Allbirds uses? Hello Drop in names. You can sign up for your $1 per month trial [e-mail] Explain that shopify.com Explain to upgrade you're selling today. Shopify.com Explain.

[Vivian Tu]

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[Bill Baer]

Chris, you like potato and I like.

[Sean Ramis]

Today, explained Bill Baer is a fellow specifically at the Brookings Institution, but he also served in the Justice Department as head of antitrust enforcement and he also also served as the head of antitrust enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission, known by its friends as the ftc. Bill says it's not just frozen potatoes. He says price setting algorithms are shaping prices across our lives.

[Bill Baer]

The government enforcement agencies, the antitrust enforcers are very worried that this use of pricing algorithms is growing. There are cases that have been brought by the government relating to the use of a third party called Agristats which is alleged to be using a pricing algorithm to raise prices for poultry, for chicken, all essential things in our consuming America.

[Amy Klobuchar]

All of the major packers are paying.

[Bill Baer]

Paying Agristats to provide them with information.

[Sean Ramis]

It's alleged that Agristats organizes and then launders that information across the industry.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Total collusion.

[Bill Baer]

It makes me have goosebumps. There are also allegations that a third party called RealPage is limiting competition by suggesting prices and output that have the effect of raising prices and also restricting availability of apartments because shortage allows companies to raise prices.

[Sean Ramis]

When the Sherman act was passed, an anti competitive scheme might have looked like.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Robber barons shaking hands at a secret meeting.

[Vivian Tu]

Today it looks like landlords using mathematical algorithms to align their rents.

[Bill Baer]

Third area this appears to be going on involves hotels in major cities across the country.

[Vivian Tu]

The lawsuit claims those companies used a revenue platform called Rainmaker to monitor real time prices for their competitors so an algorithm could adjust their rates on the fly to maximize profits.

[Bill Baer]

If those companies sat together and did this, they would go to jail. That's classic price fixing. But they think by being clever and using a third party, they avoid antitrust violations. They don't.

[Sean Ramis]

Have we seen something like this before? Like competitors becoming collaborators to serve their bottom line. Are there examples of this from before the age of algorithms?

[Bill Baer]

The answer is yes. Back when I was in the government in the 90s, we found that Toys R Us, which was the dominant retailer of toys, once a Toys R Us.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Kid, always a Toys R Us kid, was upset.

[Bill Baer]

Set that discounters like Costco and Sam's Clubs were selling popular toys at prices cheaper than Toys R Us. So Toys R Us went to the toy manufacturers and said, if you all stop selling to Costco and Sam's Club, you'll make more money and we'll make more money. We sued at the Federal Trade Commission. The courts agreed that was designed to facilitate price fixing and limit competition.

[Sean Ramis]

Wow. That giraffe is evil.

[Bill Baer]

Always a bull. It is evil. Same thing happened in the airline industry in the 1990s. The government found that airlines were using a third party to announce forthcoming fare reductions on particular routes. The airlines that were making the most money on those routes then would retaliate by proposing a dramatic fair cut on the competing airline's favorite routes. They coded those flights as FU flights.

[Sean Ramis]

Are you serious?

[Vivian Tu]

F U.

[Bill Baer]

The implication could not be clearer. Absolutely. If you cut rates on my bread and butter, guess what's going to happen to your bread and butter? And the result was the airlines moved back to the higher fare rates. So the airlines. Airlines made money, consumers got screwed.

[Sean Ramis]

What happened in each case with the airlines, with the giraffe? Did the government say, f you back, and did they have to pay hefty fines or what?

[Bill Baer]

The government was able to stop the behavior, and private plaintiffs acting on behalf of injured consumers were able to secure monetary relief.

[Sean Ramis]

And yet we're back where we were back then. Surely there are arguments for letting these companies determine their prices through algorithms. What are those arguments?

[Bill Baer]

Well, the companies will say it's more efficient if I can respond to developments in the marketplace, if my pricing algorithm allows me to meet a competitor's discount, meet a competitor's sale price. But the worry is, and there is some evidence to suggest the actual real effect of this is to discourage discounting in the first place. Joe Biden once famously said, capitalism without competition is not capitalism, it's exploitation. And that sums up the worry about what's going on here.

[Vivian Tu]

Come on, man.

[Sean Ramis]

Joe Biden was, you know, relatively tough on tech. Lina Khan, the ftc, they were bringing a lot of antitrust suits. We covered some of them on the show. What appears to be coming with Trump is a much friendlier relationship with big American technology. Is Congress cooking up any legislation that would address this?

[Bill Baer]

There are a number of bills pending. The lead bill by Senator Amy Klobuchar.

[Amy Klobuchar]

From Minnesota, because that is sophisticated price fixing. Price fixing illegal. I'm Amy Klobuchar, U.S. senator from the state of Minnesota.

[Sean Ramis]

Senator Klobuchar, we've been talking about potatoes and algorithms on the show today. Trump has been president for a few weeks now. We've got planes blowing up. We've got trade wars ramping up. We've got the federal government, government being remade before our eyes. We've got policies about diversity being rewritten. And yet we asked you here to talk to us about algorithms. Why is now a good time to talk about algorithms?

[Amy Klobuchar]

Well, first of all, it's always a good time to talk about algorithms. But the second reason is that when President Trump ran, he talked about bringing prices down on everything from groceries. And from what I see right now, you see chaos up, corruption up, and egg prices up. But from groceries to healthcare costs to childcare and of course, to housing, what some of these major landlords are doing right now is they're giving all their data to the company that the competitors go to. Then that company goes through their data with algorithms and says, hey, why don't you both charge this rate? You would not ever, under the law, allow the two apartment owners to go and shake hands and say, let's both set our rents high. You would never let them do that. That's against the law. It's against the antitrust laws. But what do we have now? We have high price, sophisticated price fixing. They let this algorithms go unchecked with all those broligarchs that were at the inauguration and all their buddies. If that continues, this is not gonna be good for you.

[Sean Ramis]

In the same room as you. I saw you guys all in there together.

[Amy Klobuchar]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean Ramis]

So you don't have to convince me that we should talk about algorithms, because here we are. But I do hope that was useful for our audience. What would your bill do for them?

[Amy Klobuchar]

So what this says is, this is illegal, basically, and it's being sued out in court anyway. I think it is illegal, but we want to make it very clearly illegal that landlords cannot collude by putting all their data when they compete against each other in one company. And what the bill says is, yeah, you can use algorithms. We're not Luddites here. However, you can't give your data to the same place that has your competitor's data in the same market. It undermines all competition in the rental market. And that is the worst thing for consumers. It's great for landlords. It's horrible for renters.

[Sean Ramis]

Help people understand why we need new legislation on that front. Because presumably we already have antitrust law. We already have the ftc. Why do we need something further?

[Amy Klobuchar]

I'm laughing because I'm just. I want you to picture back to the days of, you know, when the Senate, everyone rode horse and buggy there and. Or like they came in their trains once a month or something. Okay, so that's when they did the antitrust laws in the late 18. They didn't have algorithms. And one of the frustrations on all of the tech rules in place despite these incredible companies and what they've done for us is that a lot of our laws are just not as sophisticated as those marketplaces. So you should make adjustments. Right. Ticket prices. Let's get this Ticketmaster bill done. That was bipartisan. And also, Senator Lee and I had a major hearing on Ticketmaster, and that led. I believe that evidence we extracted from that hearing led in part to a major Justice Department case started during the Biden administration, can easily be finished in the Trump administration. And that's, you know, they've hired a pretty good person that they're putting in charge of antitrust. That's not true of a lot of the people they've hired. But on this front, this is a good person who understands these laws.

[Sean Ramis]

I'm glad you brought up your prior work on this issue. You're basically Senator Antitrust out there.

[Amy Klobuchar]

I wrote a book on it. I was on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 days.

[Sean Ramis]

There you go. Congratulations. You've introduced a number of pieces of legislation to this and a lot of them haven't been signed into law. Do you think there's an opportunity here with these price fixing algorithms where maybe there wasn't on Ticketmaster or some anti tech stuff?

[Amy Klobuchar]

It's not just passing bills, Sean. We can do that, but it's also ours. Is the law being enforced? Are they actually bringing actions? Are they getting results that matter? In the cases of this, the case going on with RealPage or Ticketmaster or the tech companies, so much of it is in the details of what they agree to. They could actually get them to agree the tech companies to a bunch of things they already agreed to in other countries to protect consumers.

[Sean Ramis]

You were in the same room as the president and the vice president a couple of times a few weeks ago. A lot of Americans saw that and.

[Amy Klobuchar]

In the same car as both presidents. I'm the only person that I know of in history that rode with both President Biden and President Trump from the White House to the Capitol.

[Sean Ramis]

Did you happen to bring up algorithms, I have to ask?

[Amy Klobuchar]

Well, at some point during the day, I mean it was a little hard to avoid not mentioning tech with all those geyser. And I believe, and I'm not gonna talk about what I talked about, but I believe that, that they've got to make sure they hold these companies accountable. It doesn't mean you're going to get rid of these companies. Of course not. But what it means is you're going to have true competition.

[Sean Ramis]

Senator Amy Klobuchar, you can call her Senator Amy Klobuchar. Before that you heard from Bill Bear from Brookings. Peter Balinon Rosen made our show today. We miss him already. Devin Schwartz helped, Jolie Myers helped. Laura Bullard helped. Patrick Boyd played the potato. Here's a fun one today. Explained is doing a show about the great wealth transfer. If you don't know what that is, I feel you some lucky youngish Americans are getting trillions, literally trillions of dollars from their parents. Not like, like individually, but when you add it all up, like, you know, parents pay the credit card bill every month. They pay the rent for that two bedroom in Brooklyn. They throw you 200k for a down payment on your first house. Tuition for the kids, private schools. Are you getting money from your parents? Call us and tell us about it, if you will. You can be anonymous if you want. 844-453-4448. Especially if it's a lot of money. We want to hear from you. No judgment, but we might call you back. 844-453-4448. Thanks.