 Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks on Capitol Hill on March 2, 2015. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters) By Max Ehrenfreund Democrats have a new message for American workers: Giant corporations are holding back the economy by cutting back on investment and hiring, and the party is going to put a stop to it. The pitch for stricter enforcement of antitrust laws — preventing firms from getting too big and penalizing or dissolving those that are using their size to shut out rivals — is full of lines that will come naturally to Democratic candidates on the stump. Free competition is a basic principle of American capitalism that could appeal to small business and independent voters, while a forceful attack on corporations, a familiar villain, might animate the party's base. And the message is part of a broader economic agenda Democrats are announcing Monday as they lay out a campaign platform for next year's midterm elections. But while U.S. corporations are undoubtedly getting bigger and more powerful, there is no consensus among economists about how this trend is affecting ordinary households, and no clear answer to whether breaking them up would relieve the economic frustration that contributed to President Trump's victory in November. Read the rest on Wonkblog.
Number of the day 2.1 percent. That is the International Monetary Fund's revised forecast for the rate of economic growth in the United States this year and next. The fund reduced the forecast in response to slow pace of legislative progress on President Trump's agenda. Ana Swanson has more.
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