Matt Stoller on monopoly power, antitrust, and the politics of corporate consolidation.
California regulators, led by former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, just blocked a merger that had also attracted the ire of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. State agencies have more power than we know.
The midterm elections are being reflected in the markets, and in the brazen behaviors of business leaders who don’t seem to think elections matter. Are they right?
Democrats are joyful, the stock market is weirdly higher, and a $400 billion corporation, CVS, just broke itself up trying to get ahead of a new political moment.
From data center opposition to California’s billionaire wealth tax, economic populism has defined the 2026 midterm election cycle, on both the left and right. But can it produce a governing agenda?
The trillion dollar Anthropic IPO will enrich Google and Amazon, who are ostensibly competitors. How does that make sense? It doesn’t, unless Anthropic is four flailing monopolies in a trench coat.
It’s not just AI eliminating the idea of jobs. It’s the gig economy.
How can anyone be surprised about the PHP hack when hacking is the business model? We’ve had a cybersecurity crisis for decades, driven by Wall Street financiers and deregulation. Let’s wake up.
Perhaps Dems’ best response to Musk’s “live by the sword, die by the sword,” should draw on another scripture: The government gave, and the government can take away.
More AI cockroaches are getting flattened, and an important index shows the broader market is starting to shift away from AI. This is not a panic, but time to plan accordingly.
When the Fed raises the price of money, it hikes electric bills, property taxes, mortgage and auto costs, and the price of working capital. It’s time to drop our illusions about the central bank.
A new lawsuit against online booking service Expedia alleges the popular travel agent is hiking hotel prices by as much as 30%. It’s one of many layers of a rigged market.
A failed initial public offering from an Nvidia-backed “neocloud” called Firmus, run by a man with a criminal record, suggests the AI bubble is getting ready to burst.
Everyone hates pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, the middlemen raising drug prices. So why did Trump FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issue them a corporate pardon?
It’s not a happy ending, as billionaire David Ellison gives himself and his team huge raises, while planning big layoffs. But the really bad sign is he just fired the hitmakers from Warner Brothers.
Three settlements in one week provide cold comfort for the future of food prices. And a verdict from on high: “Algorithms lack the spark of humanity.”
Why are people so mad about the price of a Big Mac, and what does all that anger say about where our politics are headed? It’s not just the inflation, it’s the cheating and profits behind it.
The unorthodox development isn’t that politicians caved; it’s that people noticed it. Plus, bond yields go nuts, and Trump and Xi meet to hash out China-U.S. relations.
It’s a good day to be an oligarch. CNN, CBS, HBO, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and a host of other properties will now be under the control of Larry Ellison, who also owns Oracle and TikTok.
The Senate just voted to restore the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s monopoly power. Why is Congress helping the NCAA? And why are we focused on college sports instead of actual problems?
Documents show a Microsoft exec called AI the "largest theft of labor in human history.” New AI regulations are besides the point, the problem is we don’t apply existing laws to the powerful.
We shouldn’t want people to become superrich by building unsafe technology. The government has the authority to block the IPO. It should. Plus, government lies about health costs, and more...
Why are big AI firm trying to create billionaires from a technology they say may end the world? There are real risks to AI, but something is very off about the latest social panic.
Lots of news, as usual.
The Law School Admissions Council, once a nonprofit designed to help students, is now the Ticketmaster for law school admissions. We are teaching young lawyers that law is about cheating.
47 states settled with Meta over harms to kids. It’s not a strong settlement, but America now has the outlines of an FDA for big tech. Plus, rage on the ranch, record corporate profits, and more.
Opposing corporate power used to make you a moderate. Now it means you’re radical. Who controls the label of moderate is a good lens into the power of finance.
The rise in tech-enabled scalable ways to cheat imposes a hidden time tax on all of us, even when we don’t fall for scams. Plus, more Dem upsets against big money, and Paramount aligns with Flock.
Concentrated capital has a bunch of weapons it can deploy against regulatory threats. One of the most common is the capital strike, which Paramount is right now using.
When a health insurer won't replace an amputated leg, the reason isn't because it saves money. It's because the nerds at the Congressional Budget Office stop Congress from fixing our system.
Big tech is in a lot of trouble, as the law, the financing, and the American people turn against them. Plus, Amazon's antitrust troubles, and a crack in the electric utility high billing scam.