The Resistance Liberal Lawyers Helping Trump Take Over the Media
Executives and big law lawyers in the Nexstar-TEGNA case are openly showing contempt for a judge. And the ABA Antitrust bar is silent on the corruption of the Paramount-Warner merger.
Economics
BIG by Matt Stoller.
Matt Stoller on monopoly power, antitrust, and the politics of corporate consolidation.
Recent essays
26 of 26Judge Puts Warner-Paramount Merger On Hold
Today was a good day for the anti-monopoly movement, and Hollywood artists. It was not a good day for Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and his legal team trying to roll up Hollywood.
Monopoly Round-Up: Video Gamers Rebel Against Sony, Microsoft, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Sony will no longer ship physical copies of games, prompting widespread anger from customers at how their ownership rights are being stripped by powerful monopolies. Plus, SpaceX craters...
BOOM! Billionaires Punched in the Nose Over Paramount-Warner by State Enforcers, Unions
The Paramount-Warner merger challenge looks odd, but that's only because all the other cops are bought off. Here are the arguments for and against the deal, and the process going forward.
Monopoly Round-Up: States to Challenge Paramount-Warner, Billionaire Larry Ellison Lashes Out Wildly
“They’re completely driven by antisemitism and socialism,” say a source in the New York Post about deal opponents. Plus, a merger boom, and someone let a squirrel loose in Meta's offices...
You'll Own Nothing and Be Happy: Why It's So Hard to Break John Deere's Control Over Farming
It's not hard to help America's farmers escape from John Deere's monopoly. But actually breaking the firm's inefficient control over equipment would cut against our strategy of Number Go Up.
Monopoly Round-Up: Dealing with a July 4th Organized by Scoundrels
Donald Trump's self-dealing and corruption are fostering an oligarchy, with laws organized by the Supreme Court. Can America defeat the vision offered eighty years ago of a cynical nihilistic society?
Crime Pays: The Egg Bandits Made A Thousand Times the Fine They Just Paid for Price Fixing
The Stringer Bell rule is obsolete, as Trump and state attorneys general let the egg producers off the hook for a brazen conspiracy. Still, egg prices did drop as a result of the investigation.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why Wall Street Isn't Yet Afraid of the Left
In 1995, Newt Gingrich killed the ability of the left to project power. It hasn't recovered. Plus, Trump picks a new antitrust chief, the end of cheap electronics, and the AI bubble wobbles...
Yes, Gas Prices Are Being Manipulated by Price Fixing Software.
As populist politicians win elections, the anti-monopoly movement attacks new AI driven price-fixing hiking the cost of gas, meat, rent, electronics, et al. But can the new populists govern?
Monopoly Round-Up: How Wall Street Tried Replacing the Civil Rights Movement With Human Resources
On Friday - Juneteenth - Obama opened his oligarch-funded library. What does this moment say about race and finance? Plus, the FTC stops enforcing Robinson-Patman, the AI bubble worsens, and more...
Why the Iran War Hasn't Crashed the Economy
In the 1970s, governments prepared for oil shocks. It turns out, stockpiling and diversification works, which is probably why economists hate doing it.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Pope and a Silicon Valley Trillionaire Fight Over God
Elon Musk is a trans-humanist, the ultimate expression of the Chicago School philosophy. The Pope offers a different vision about how limits make us human. Plus, Iran, Warner/Paramount, and more...
What Would It Look Like If the AI Bubble Popped?
It's now consensus that we're in a bubble of investment in AI data centers, and that it's a risk to our economy. If the stock market declines, how bad could it get? Where are there areas of contagion?
Monopoly Round-Up: Graham Platner and Stock Market Democrats
Controversy erupted in a Maine Senate race, causing Democrats nationwide to go at each others' throat. Fights over oligarchy are becoming unavoidable.
A Billionaire Explains Why American Business Now Feels like the Mafia
In his autobiography "Born to Be Wired," Warner board member and billionaire John Malone describes how he helped turn America into a society focused on greed and market power.
Monopoly Round-Up: After SpaceX Goes Public, Does the Stock Market Finally Fall?
Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO is a very scary moment for the stock market. And AI is getting repriced in an ugly way as corporate America finally has to start paying for the tools.
The Mystery Gasoline Surcharge: How Oil Incumbents Are Trying to Maintain Fossil Fuel Dominance
Potential 2028 candidate Gavin Newsom is fighting with Chevron about high gas prices. But the real stakes are about whether the U.S. will remain locked into an expensive fossil fuel tech stack.
Monopoly Round-Up: Private Equity Blocked from Buying Homes. Mostly.
Big business lost this fight, and a battle over railway safety and labor conditions. It's a shocking moment, as Wall Street titans start to see their power ebb in the waning days of the Trump era.
"Where’s all the f&$*#ing money going?" The Waste and Costs of American Utilities
NextEra's $67 billion takeover of Dominion shows the problem with utilities. We spend a lot, and get little in return. Why? Utility monopolies profit from gold-plating, waste and inefficiency.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Rage of the Billionaires Is Coming
As students boo commencement speakers touting AI, and communities reject data centers, billionaires are getting nervous and angry. It's going to get worse.
The Efficiency Moat: Why China Is Beating the U.S. on AI… And Everything Else
From electric vehicles to drones to solar to AI, the Chinese are doing what the U.S. used to - investing and competing. Chinese strategy is also predatory, but we could learn a thing or two from them.
Monopoly Round-Up: What Challenging a Bowling Monopoly Says About America
Lots of monopoly news, as usual.
Fine Print: How Uniform Rental Contracts Explain the U.S. Economy
The inequality of the legal system is on full display. If you're big, you have rights. If you're small, you don't. And the Cintas-Unifirst merger reveals how this system enables bad behavior.
Monopoly Round-Up: How Big Tech Earnings Show the Stock Market Is Being Manipulated
This week, the four biggest spenders on AI released their earnings within two minutes of each other. There's an unsettling reason for that. Plus, Michigan goes after private equity in youth sports...
Who Killed Spirit Airlines?
It wasn't Biden antitrust enforcers. It was Donald Trump's Iran War, JetBlue, the big four trunk airlines, and behind all of that, deregulation. And this story has happened hundreds of times.