The FTC is back to being the activist US agency progressives sought in 1914 | Robert Reich

Last week, under its Biden-appointed chair, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule banning non-compete agreements - and it's a big deal

Have you ever been forced to sign a non-compete agreement when you started a job?

About 30 million Americans are trapped by contracts that say if they leave their current job, they can't take a job with a rival company or start a new business of their own.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com