Andy Jassy’s Past Studies May Impact His Time As Amazon CEO

Is there some kind of karmic balance to the fact that Andy Jassy started his CEO job at Amazon one month after Lina Khan started as Chair of the FTC?

Much is written about what Jassy will do next, but will those plans be put on hold - defense rather than offense?

Khan has signaled and written very actively about her views regarding antitrust in the Yale Law Journal. The money quote from her is this:

"Critically, consumer interests include not only cost but also product quality, variety, and innovation."

Essentially, preventing a kind of "monoculture" in a particular industry can be as important a standard as price. Furthermore, she has shown to deeply understand the ability of companies - including Amazon - to leverage an advantage in one area into another sphere of influence.

This is problematic. After all, few startups are formed where there is not at least some idea of an "unfair advantage." If at formation they are not an issue, what standard should we apply, and at what size is the breaking point?

Finally - I picked up a small but seemingly significant tidbit last week which mentioned that Mr. Jassy has a Bachelor's Degree in Government from Harvard.

He just may find his old degree more useful in the next 5 years than at any time in the last 25+ years.