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.
BOOM: Congress Imposes Public Utility Rules on UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna • Pharmacy benefit managers owned by UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna drive up costs and harm patients. Finally, the House and Senate agreed on rules to cut into their power.
Will Google Organize the World's Prices? • Google may monopolize the market for AI consumer services. And now it is rolling out a product to help businesses set prices, based on what it knows about us. The failure of antitrust will be costly.
Monopoly Round-Up: Why Did Trump Just Attack the Fed and Corporate America? • Donald Trump pledged to crack down on Wall Street ownership of housing, credit card giants, and defense contractors. And he attacked the Fed. It's the year of affordability. But is the agenda real?
The One Simple Thing That Makes the U.S. Economy Unmanageable • We used to be able to answer the question "How much does that cost?" But prices in America are not only high, but increasingly hidden. Fortunately, there's pushback.
Monopoly Round-Up: George W. Trump and a Gunboat Oligarchy • Trump kicked off 2026 with a military attack on Venezuela and a naked seizure of oil resources. Wall Street is overjoyed. Plus, Mamdani takes office and billionaires rage at a wealth tax.
Gatekeepers of Law: Inside the Westlaw and LexisNexis Duopoly • Ever since a spate of mergers in the 1990s, Westlaw and LexisNexis have dominated legal research. And that might be why searching legal cases is so costly, even in the age of AI.
Open Thread: Thoughts on 2026? • What are your reflections over the last year in terms of monopolies and finance? And what do you think will happen in 2026?
In 2026, Will Americans Finally Turn Against Oligarchs? • Americans are noticing private equity roll-ups in everything from youth sports to fire trucks to big tech. And they really don't like it. Is a genuine anti-monopoly revolt finally brewing in 2026?
Monopoly Round-Up: Corporate Lawyers and Fat Envelope America • Former antitrust enforcer Roger Alford blasted the ABA Antitrust Section before Congress. Plus, Gavin Newsom raises electricity prices in California, the FTC sues Uber, and TikTok gets fake sold.
How Wall Street Ruined the Roomba and Then Blamed Lina Khan • This week's bankruptcy of iRobot, the maker of the Roomba vacuum, is about more than a robot cleaner. It's about monopolies, Wall Street, and economists leading America on a path of destruction.
Monopoly Round-Up: Trump Is About to Take Control of How Money in America Works • The Federal Reserve runs money and banks in America. Trump is about to take control. Plus, NASCAR settles and Warner Bros gets a hostile bid. And is a Ticketmaster antitrust settlement in the works?
Secret Documents Show Pepsi and Walmart Colluded to Raise Food Prices Across the Economy • The Trump FTC tried to hide a complaint showing Pepsi forced shoppers to pay higher prices everywhere but Walmart. But now it's unsealed. And the politics of affordability are explosive.
Even In a Populist Moment, Democrats Are Split on the Problem of Corporate Power • Democratic voters have turned against big business, but only the progressive faction of the party has listened. This distance between voters and leaders is unusual and can't go on forever. Or can it?
