Episode 1: Standard Oil

We start at the beginning, in the late nineteenth century, with the story of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil. We visit Titusville, Pennsylvania where the oil boom was in full effect. We retrace the steps of muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell as she uncovers the backroom deals struck by Rockefeller, then one of the world's richest men. Tarbell's investigative reporting in the early 1900s inspired a court case that helped change the design of the American economy.

Episode 2: The Paradox

If the breakup of the Standard Oil company was a turning point in the balance of power between enormous companies and the free market. The 1970s was a turning point in the other direction. In the decades leading up to the '70s, the government had grown increasingly aggressiveintervening in the free market to defend competition in more and more ways over time. Then a lawyer named Robert Bork completely transformed the way courts would interpret antitrust law. The approach to enforcement reversed direction away from protecting firms and toward a consumer focus, paving the way for today's tech giants.

- The episodes describes a shift in focus of antitrust between Episodes 1 & 2. What was this shift? What do you think should be the focus of antitrust now? Can you see any potential "Standard Oil" cases in the world around us?

Read the episodes 1&2 provided, then answer the question given.