Anti-Monopolists Soared in the Midterms. You Can Help With What's Next.
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.
Economics
BIG by Matt Stoller.
Matt Stoller on monopoly power, antitrust, and the politics of corporate consolidation.
Recent essays
30 of 58Monopoly Round-Up: Did Bernie Sanders Set the Terms for the Midterm Elections?
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?
Anthropic Isn't Just a Company, It's a Payoff
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.
DoorDash's $17B Acquisition of Instacart Points to a World Without Employees
It’s not just AI eliminating the idea of jobs. It’s the gig economy.
Monopoly Round-Up: What Happens When Cybersecurity is Bad for Business
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.
Elon Musk Just Threatened the Coming Democratic Majority
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Goodbye AI Bubble, Hello Real Economy
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.
How the Fed Is Quietly Inflating the AI Bubble While Hiking Your Electric Bill
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.
How Expedia Rigs Travel Markets and Raises Your Hotel Prices
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: AI Cockroaches Scurry Out from Under Nvidia, the Most Valuable Company in the World
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.
How Trump Enforcers are Sabotaging Efforts to Bring Down Drug Prices
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?
Paramount Stock CRUSHED After Merger with Warner Discovery Closes
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: How Seed and Pesticide Makers Act Like the Mafia
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.”
McDonald's Caught Cheating Consumers for Profit as Rage Over Cost of Living Burns
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Paramount-WB Isn't Just a Loss, It's a Prelude
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.
Happy Oligarch Day as Trump-Aligned Billionaires Take Over Hollywood
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why the Senate Is Weirdly Obsessed with College Sports Instead of Real Problems
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?
AI Is an Elite Crime Spree
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Just Stop the Anthropic IPO Already
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...
Stop Panicking About AI
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Enshittification of the American Hamburger
Lots of news, as usual.
How the LSAT Become the Ticketmaster of Law School Admissions
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Did America Just Set Up an FDA for Big Tech?
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.
Why Political Moderates Are Losing
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: Living in an Age of Cheating Means Having Your Time Stolen Constantly
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: What Happens When Oligarchs Stop Being Polite
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.
The Secret Society of Nerds Who Control Congress and Ruin Our Health Care
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.
Monopoly Round-Up: A Judge Condemns Facebook for Enabling Mass Sexual Exploitation of Kids
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.
BOOM! An Anti-Monopolist Smashed the Democratic Establishment in Michigan Last Night
Populist Abdul El-Sayed shocked the Democratic Party establishment by beating an incumbent Congresswoman for a Senate nominating contest, despite being outspent nine to one. What comes now?
Monopoly Round-Up: Are Big AI Firms Cooking the Books?
If we're going to dump trillions into AI, it's time to audit the books of the big AI companies to see how the business actually works. That's how New Dealers would have done it.