In the latest Slingshot Podcast, @halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush interview @basel.bsky.social on all things eggs, beef, housing, and abundance. Check it out! www.thesling.org/video/slings...

Looking forward to watch this sometime soon. @basel.bsky.social has dug deep into a few big affordability issues in the last few years --eggs, beef, housing

Why do corporatist neoliberals like Stephen insist on lying / talking confidently about industries they clearly don’t understand?

Tyson Foods over the last few months: • Approved 43 MILLION shares in stock buybacks • Spent $196 million buying back its own stock to juice up the price • Announced closure of Lexington plant: 3,200 workers in a town of 11,000 people Then what happened?

What happened the week Tyson announced it was laying off 3,200 workers from its plant in Lexington, NE? The profits from the Big 4 Meatpackers hit their HIGHEST level since 2022. This is what a cartel looks like.

Watch the whole thing. It's about Nebraska.

Oh hey, that’s my tweet!

THIS. 👇

In a competitive food system, a meatpacker like Tyson would try to SELL a plant rather than close it. But Tyson DOESN’T want to sell to a competitor! They want to retain as much monopoly power as possible. Listen to Tyson’s own words, it wants to “right-size” its business...

3. The USDA (@usdagov.bsky.social) should immediately commence proceedings to enforce the law to the fullest extent — and seek to compel Tyson to either keep the plant open or sell the plant to an upstart rival who will introduce honest competition into this cartelized industry.

2. If this kind of conduct doesn’t violate Section 202(e) of the Packers and Stockyards Act — which makes it illegal for any meatpacker to "engage in any course of business or do any act for the purpose or with the effect of manipulating or controlling prices” — then nothing does.

1. Osborn is right. By dismantling its giant meatpacking plant in Lexington instead of selling it to a rival, Tyson is practically committing arson to manipulate the market into a place where beef prices are high, cattle prices are low, and the meatpackers in the middle (like Tyson) make a killing.

1. Osborn is right. By dismantling its giant meatpacking plant in Lexington instead of selling it to a rival, Tyson is practically committing arson to manipulate the market into a place where beef prices are high, cattle prices are low, and the meatpackers in the middle (like Tyson) make a killing.

I had the same thought. They’re also closing a plant in Amarillo. These two plants represent 9% of the supply of beef. Creating a supply squeeze is a great way to get prices moving up again.

I am asking President Trump to order the DOJ and the USDA to use their authority to BLOCK this closure and save these jobs or force Tyson to SELL this plant and introduce competition into this market.

Dear Tyson workers in Lexington, Nebraska. I am NOT going to give you hollow “thoughts and prayers” that do absolutely nothing. I’m going to fight like hell to keep your jobs. More soon, Dan Osborn

I believe Tyson's decision to shut down its Lexington plant instead of selling it is a PLOY to manipulate cattle and beef markets in violation of our antitrust laws. 🧵

Please share your theory: Why did Trump announce beef 🥩and tomato🍅tariff cuts when 99% of US🍅imports and 42% of🥩are from Mexico or Canada and ALREADY DUTY FREE under USMCA? Argentine beef is another 25% import share and ALREADY HAD TARIFFS CUT. So why cut PHANTOM TARIFFS? 1/

When: -4 multinationals dominate the development and production of seeds and pesticides. -Single firms monopolize each of the domestic markets for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers. -5 companies control the nation’s meat and poultry industries.

“If #zohran wins..."The Menace of Prosperity" — a tremendous urban history and storehouse of inspiring precedents and ideas — is going to be required reading in the coming years”- @petedavis.bsky.social, founder of the @Democracy Policy Network Order today. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

"We have an economy where a handful of modern-day robber barons wield extraordinary power. They hold enormous control over our paychecks, our bills, our time, and our futures. ...But the good news is that nothing about any of this is inevitable." - Lina Khan

Did I just see Lina Khan walk out to Warren G's "Regualte" at the Zohran rally?? the greatest of all time

Come work with me, pals! #hiring

Just learned a lot about the egg cartel. Big egg is worth the read.

Come work with me, pals! #hiring

Zuckerberg built a hot-or-not "Facemash" the year before Facebook, he's still in charge of Meta and being a multibillionaire certainly doesn't increase the chances of any sort of growing up. He was always a creep, he just has more platforms now. via @proptermalone.bsky.social @basel.bsky.social

“Meta has used back-to-school pictures of schoolgirls to advertise one of its social media platforms to a 37-year-old man, in a move parents described as “outrageous” and “upsetting.” Meta has 100% stopped even *pretending* not to be astoundingly evil. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

had to read the article to understand wtf was going on here which is that Meta is literally feeding Instagram pictures parents took of their teenage daughters to middle aged men as ads for Threads

The senate hearings were spurred by Basel’s reporting earlier this year.

Abundance Bros were big mad at @basel.bsky.social a few weeks ago. Can’t help but note that while they’ve been busy carrying water for kleptocracy, Basel is literally testifying against the monopolization & enshittification of firetrucks. You read that right. www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

Today, during a subcommittee hearing overseeing disaster management, I addressed the manufacturers of fire equipment and trucks. Big manufacturers must answer for why fire departments are waiting too long and paying too much for the trucks they need. 1/2

The collusion seems to include providing the Russian authorities with materials (from their confidential asylum applications!) used to send forcibly repatriated dissidents to prison. The depth of betrayal here is beyond words.

At NatCon, there were two topics dominating everyone’s discussions: the imminent end of the right’s support of Israel — and the existential threat that technology posed to Western civilization. I wrote about the second discussion. www.theverge.com/politics/773...

Oh hey! Look who’s testifying at their first congressional hearing next week! 😄

Elon Musk's SpaceX "has received billions of dollars in federal contracts over its more than two-decade existence. But SpaceX has most likely paid little to no federal income taxes since its founding in 2002 and has privately told investors that it may never have to." www.nytimes.com/2025/08/15/t...

The Abundance/Effective Altruist crowd doesnt care about the role of finance in housing. In fact, they don’t even want to examine the role of finance within…the Federal Reserve! www.thebignewsletter.com/p/an-abundan...

When the Federal Reserve jacks up mortgage rates, credit card rates, and auto loan rates on millions of Americans, the federal government literally does not count that crushing inflation as inflation. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/strikes-an...

This piece from Matt Stoller on the shape of the new Oligarchy in the US is interesting - the basic claim is that you have the general post-Reagan scam artistry associated with the GOP tied to a populist personality cult and the result is just bizarre. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/into-the-a...

Quite the broadside from Stoller against the Abundance crowd, and I had a bit of a jumpscare to see effective altruism return to the Discourse too. There's an underlying point about to be made, like, what sort of things fool what sort of people. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/an-abundan...

Put legislative vetoes on the list of post-Trump reforms (bullying the Court into accepting those reforms is also part of the reforms)

“There is no such thing as a canon of donut holes” is officially my new favorite phrase (real statutory interpretation heads know what I’m talking about)

FYI Bookshop.org has anti-prime free shipping rn!

In our latest interview, we explore the history of U.S. antimonopoly law with Basel Musharbash (@basel.bsky.social), author of the report “'Kings Over the Necessaries of Life': Monopolization and the Elimination of Competition in America’s Agriculture System" (farmaction.us/kings-over-t...)

And once again, #PrivateEquity is the villain. 😑 This isn't just capitalism. Literally, one private equity group bought up lots of small biz and now controls ⅓ of the sales. Oh yeah, and prices went up. Please read. Everyone needs fire trucks in their lives. thehustle.co/originals/wh...

of significant note: theres a lot of chicken epidemics that occur and result in culls of billions of birds (Newcastle outbreak was rly bad just a handful of years ago). But you didnt notice, because it wasnt being exploited like bird flu. To solve eggs, you must solve monopolies.

If you're interested in the intersection between farming and politics, or just "why egg $$?" agricultural scientist Taber is extremely on point. So is the info she shares from others.

Buying July 4th BBQ stuff? A lot that iconic "American" food is imported now. 🤯We had a food trade deficit of almost $60 billion in 2024. My @rethinktrade.bsky.social colleague @khetti.bsky.social has a new report out today explaining the rising US food trade deficit, its causes and fixes. 1/

The deficit is a competition policy/anti-monopoly & trade problem. Thanks to very smart people like @basel.bsky.social and great work at Farm Action we know that food and farm consolidation is a huge problem. The ABCD grain traders control 70%+ of the global food market share! 9/

In a new piece co-authored with Econ One’s Gavin Sicard, we explore whether DOJ’s inquiry into the egg industry, as reported by Capitol Forum on March 6, may have caused egg prices to plummet. If so, the implications would be big. Highlights coming. www.thesling.org/did-dojs-inv...

Messing With Texas: How Big Homebuilders and Private Equity Made American Cities Unaffordable www.thebignewsletter.com/p/messing-wi...