Monopoly Round-Up: Some Surprising Setbacks for Trump-Aligned Corporate America • With losses in cases involving Ticketmaster, Nexstar-TEGNA, and Amazon this week, plus a data center ban in Maine and taxes on $5M+ apartments in NYC, the superrich are starting to face obstacles.
BOOM: Ticketmaster GUILTY of Monopolization • Company execs joked about their customers, privately saying they were "robbing them blind, baby." Today, a jury handed the ticketing and concert giant a complete defeat.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Ticketmaster Antitrust Verdict Comes This Week • The Ticketmaster trial ends, and a jury decides. Plus, the Feds look into the NFL on antitrust law, fights over the Strait of Hormuz, and New York City has plans to open its first city grocery store.
Emergency Prices: How Private Equity Captured the Ambulance Market • Emergency service costs have been going up for years, frustrating city officials. One reason seems to be private equity, which bought up ambulance makers and raised prices.
Monopoly Round-Up: Lina Khan Is Back • Pam Bondi got fired, Sysco buys Restaurant Depot, CBS lies about California gas prices, a private equity roll-up is killing bowling leagues, and Palantir will help the IRS do audits.
Yes, Therapy Sessions Are Being Used to Train AI • There's a political fight over the practice of therapy, spurred by AI. As Wall Street driven health platforms try to reorder mental health care, therapists are pushing for regulation of insurance.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Iran Price Shock Begins • Prices are going up and markets are in chaos. This time, the rich aren't insulated. Plus, Australia bans social media for teens, Israeli soldiers are obsessed with betting on war, and more.
Monopoly Round-Up: Manipulating the Stock Market Is Trump's War Strategy • Trump's war strategy depends on Number Go Up. But the markets aren't believing him as much as they used to. Plus, Elon Musk found liable for fraud, and third party populist candidates gain steam.
BOOM: State Enforcers Attack the Censorship Machine, Challenge Merger That Kicked Jimmy Kimmel Off the Air • Eight Democratic state attorneys general just challenged the $6 billion Nexstar-TEGNA merger that would consolidate local TV broadcasting and kill local news. It's about time.
Monopoly Round-Up: Bombshell Document Details Watergate-Style Corruption at the Antitrust Division • From Ticketmaster to Paramount to Hewlett Packard, the Trump administration and corporate America are involved in an orgy of corruption. Finally, we are seeing the first rea investigation take place.
BOOM: Senate Votes to Block Private Equity from Buying Homes • For 15 years, elites have fought against homeownership by ordinary people, instead pushing a renter society. That may have ended with an 89-10 vote in the Senate against Wall Street owning homes.
Trump Just Pardoned Ticketmaster When No One Was Looking • The Trump DOJ settled with Ticketmaster, while state enforcers said they'll continue. The judge is mad, the parties showed "absolute disrespect for the court, for the jury, for this entire process."
Monopoly Round-Up: Will the Iran Price Shock Break the World? • The Iran war may be catastrophic. Plus, Ticketmaster gets hit in its first week at trial, opposition to the Paramount-Warner deal is fractured, and the economy is slowing. It's a very ugly moment.
How Trump's Antitrust Enforcer Andrew Ferguson May Be Pushing Up Oil Prices • The FTC said former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield helped work with the OPEC oil cartel. The Trump FTC let him off the hook. And now he's back.
Monopoly Round-Up: The Epstein Class Launches a War • Arab princes, Western bankers, Silicon Valley AI guys, and Israeli hawks are all part of one blob. And they just started a war. Plus, the Ticketmaster trial starts...
Can the Paramount-Warner Mega-Merger Be Stopped? • California Attorney General Rob Bonta says he's investigating the $110 billion Paramount-Warner deal. Can he challenge it? Will he? And if he does, can he win?
Warners/Paramount: Talking what’s next w/ Matt Stoller • A recording from Matt Stoller and Richard Rushfield's live video
Amazon BUSTED for Widespread Scheme to Inflate Prices Across the Economy • California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged Amazon led a price-fixing conspiracy of online retailers to inflate prices across the entire economy. And he's demanding an immediate halt.
Monopoly Round-Up: A Tariff Loss Highlights the Incredible Shrinking Trump Presidency • It's the State of the Union this week. Plus, a big loss for Ticketmaster, Bernie Sanders is a doomer on AI, and United hints at a JetBlue merger.
Paramount Has a Secret Plan to Buy Hollywood Before the Cops Arrive • Paramount consigliere Makan Delrahim has plans to close the Paramount-Warner deal and do mass layoffs before antitrust enforcers can even file a case.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why the "AI God" Narrative is Actually a Corporate Power Grab • The AI cultists went into overdrive this week, Meta got the creepiest patent imaginable, and AOC attacked monopolies to burnish her foreign policy chops.
Big Business Has Pam Bondi Fire Trump's Antitrust Chief • Trump Antitrust chief Gail Slater was mostly a failure, though kept some antitrust cases alive. Despite attempts to mollify corporate lobbyists, Pam Bondi fired her anyway. What happens now?
The Beginning of the End for Big Corporate Medicine • Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley introduced legislation to break up seven out of the Fortune 20, all of which are vertically integrated health care monsters. It's about time.
Monopoly Round-Up: The $2 Trillion Collapse of Bitcoin and Terrible Software Companies • AI is going to displace business software because so much of it is terrible quality crap peddled by monopolists. Policy can help. Plus, bitcoin falls, & enforcers may drop the Ticketmaster suit.
Jeff Bezos Just Taught Liberal Elites How Oligarchy Really Works • Bezos was feted as the savior of the Washington Post in 2013, now he's reviled for mass layoffs. But it's also Google who helped crush the paper. Liberal elites are starting to learn about oligarchy.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why the Epstein Files Won't Go Away • The GOP loses in a Trump-heavy Texas district, as voters get angrier and angrier at elite misbehavior. Plus, big pharma actually cuts drug prices, & the FTC accuses Jeff Bezos of shredding documents.
The Boomcession: Why Everyone But the Superrich Hate This Economy • The models used by policymakers to understand wages, economic growth, and consumer spending are misleading. That's why corporate America is having a party, and everyone else is mad.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why ICE Polices in Minnesota, and Not the Corporate Board Room • Law enforcement budgets show we defunded those who police corporate America, while ramping up coercion on working people. Plus, Dana White tries to take over boxing & the FTC appealed its Meta loss.
