When a few corporations dominate the economy, democracy is the first casualty. @matthewstoller.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy to expose how monopolies—from banks to Big Tech—turn economic power into political control. 🎧 Listen here: pod.link/pitchforkeco...

While you feared for your future and organized against fascism, Kamala “Marie Antoinette” Harris, in possession of a vast email list and other resources to help mobilize people, ‘tuned out’ the news and watched cooking shows.

To say that American foreign policy in the Middle East is being conducted entirely on behalf of a foreign state is reminiscent of antisemitic tropes and has the potential to lend credence to the narratives of those who hate the Jewish People. It also, unfortunately, happens to be true.

Actually fuck this guy

The monopoly round-up is out. For this one, I went into the crisis at UnitedHealth Group that became clear last week when its CEO resigned and the WSJ reported it's under criminal investigation for Medicare fraud. Is UHG a house of cards? www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-r...

Just want to note why I have contempt for so many Democratic insiders. They knew that Biden was in cognitive decline, those of us who spoke up publicly were attacked and harassed.

Not documenting the Republican megabill because...

Well this complaint alleging accounting fraud to cover up for a cash shortfall at trillion dollar behemoth Brookfield Asset Management is a doozy. brookfield.substack.com/p/brookfield...

I don’t know David Hogg but he seems to be annoying the right people.

TSMC’s monopoly control undermines the CHIPS Act’s intent. economicpopulist.substack.com/p/the-bigges...

Good read from @matthewstoller.bsky.social on why Google investors should push for a voluntary breakup, after the Cue dip www.thebignewsletter.com/p/wall-stree...

My statement on Kamala's re-emergence. (No, thank you!) @boldprogressives.org @freedlander.bsky.social

Unusually strong statement from @adamgreen321.bsky.social of PCCC on Harris doing a DNC fundraiser tomorrow: (via email)

White House budget takes an ax to the fund that keeps rural airline routes afloat, the Essential Air Service.

Big Tech on Trial continues to do amazing work on the Meta antitrust trial. Yesterday, Meta’s Curtiss Cobb, the head of its internal Demography and Survey Science team, got wrecked for misleading testimony. And a TikTok exec testified on how they compete. www.bigtechontrial.com/p/the-sky-is...

A judge just killed Apple’s control over app stores, Google has lost three antitrust cases, and we just beat Jim Jordan’s attempt to defang antitrust. Maybe rethink your priors!

Apple has lost power over mobile phones, as developers will now be able to accept payment outside the app store without having to hand over the 30% vig. This will be the first time we'll see a real world impact from an antitrust remedy against a big tech titan. open.substack.com/pub/mattstol...

House Republican Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan is trying to secretly eliminate the antitrust case against UnitedHealth Group's Optum PBM unit by getting rid of a key antitrust law. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/house-gop-...

The monopoly round-up for the week is out. Why is Wall Street unconcerned over Google's antitrust losses? Probably because Google has generated an additional half a trillion in revenue while on trial for business methods a judge called illegal. Crime pays. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-r...

Some scary numbers came out showing how Biden redistributed wealth upward to big business during the post-Covid supply shocks. Will Trump make the same mistake? I go over the various pricing games that monopolists played, and whether we'll see a repeat. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/how-monopo...

While I’m perseverating on the economy this morning, Matt Stoller uses Franz Neumann’s book Behemoth to connect some fascism c. democracy dots. From his conclusion: “There is no world in which Google flourishes as a monopoly and America flourishes as a political democracy. We must choose.”

Of course

Good stuff from the Federal Trade Commission against Uber. Former Republican FTC commissioner Christine Wilson, who now works for Kamala Harris's brother-in-law and Uber chief counsel Tony West, is very upset. So is Bush FTC Chair Tim Muris. So clubby. techcrunch.com/2025/04/21/f...

The monopoly round-up is out. I've been meaning to get out an essay on the relationship between monopoly power and fascism, which is something Americans used to understand quite well. Here you go: www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-r...

Really terrific summary of day four of the most important antitrust trials of the century, the case to break up Meta. There is nowhere else doing this kind of detailed reporting on the case. open.substack.com/pub/bigtecho...

Thousands of young AmeriCorps volunteers who respond to disasters and help in community projects abandoned by Trump.

My quick write-up of the Google antitrust loss and what it means. This one's a big deal. It's the third monopolization finding against Google, this company is increasingly likely to be taken apart. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/google-fou...

Google just lost another antitrust case, which means three separate judges have called out different parts of its business as monopolies. Judge Brinkema in this one seriously rolled back Trinko, a very bad decision. The antitrust revolution marches on. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BOOM: Google loses ANOTHER antitrust suit, it's a monopolist of the software used by publishers to manage online ads, as well as the exchanges used to buy and sell online ads. Three judges have called Google a monopolist in different markets. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "We should expand Social Security by passing an emergency, temporary Social Security adjustment so that retirees who will never get the chance to recover their lost savings are a little bit better protected from the chaos." senatebankingdemocrats.substack.com/p/flashing-r...

Turns out the reward for bending the knee to Trump is big law firms get to write trade deals for him on behalf of their clients. www.law360.com/articles/232...

Zuckerberg on the Stand: The Trial to Break Up Facebook Starts Monday, by @matthewstoller.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/mattstol...

Key quote of the day at #StiglerAntitrust25: "If you've spent $500 billion on an LLM and it's not everywhere, then you've set $500 billion on fire for super Clippy" - @matthewstoller.bsky.social 😆😆

Private equity is an industry known for ruthless cost-cutting and looting that leaves target companies gutted & short-staffed while Wall Street execs make off with a jackpot. Now this industry is taking over airplane maintenance. What could possibly go wrong?

NEWS: More than 500 law firms sign on to an amicus brief in support of Perkins Coie amid the firm’s legal battle against Trump’s executive order targeting its business. Read the list of firms that signed the brief authored by former SG Don Verrilli: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The editorial in this week's monopoly round up is a tour de force. The most interesting thread he is amplifying this week is an observation about valuations: we have been digesting our own economic muscles to drive asset and equity valuations for 40 years. And we're running out of fuel.

In this week's monopoly round-up, I laid out the real reason America can't build stuff. The answer is that it's our national strategy. In the 1980s we decided building was bad and finance was good. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-r...

The Blackrock Panama Canal ports deal is on the rocks after the Chinese government indicated it's unhappy with Trump's attempt to dislodge Chinese control. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The AMA has essentially turned itself from a voice of doctors into “a Silicon Valley tech incubator financed with money extracted from doctors,” who have, by and large, become corporate employees. @matthewstoller.bsky.social www.thebignewsletter.com/p/how-the-am...

“Commercial beekeepers have reported losing more than 60% of their colonies, on average, over the winter…This enormous rate of decline is higher than record reductions seen last year and is on track to be the “biggest loss of honeybee colonies in US history”

"The entire edifice of party politics, that fancy lawyers do the real governing work while shabby hacks handle the rabble during the elections, is a charade to hand over America to private equity and monopoly." - @matthewstoller.bsky.social

Inspiring words from President turned Instagram influencer Barack Obama. Can’t wait to read his fourth autobiography!

This is where senator is this weekend.

Lina Khan was right, part 823.

Buckle up, FTC chaos ahead

Trump just tried to fire FTC Democrats even though he doesn't have the authority to do so. Why? Well, as it turns out, the White House official who sent the letter is Trent Morse, an ex-corporate lobbyist whose firm repped Amazon on antitrust matters. www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-trump-....

I mean, yes, he is doing that. Trump is also bad. The universe contains multitudes.

I think this is the disconnect. Schumer still focused on POLITICAL STRATEGY. Democratic grassroots focused on the SUBSTANTIVE HARM being done to the United States.

Florida Republican state Senate Thomas Leek proposes a bill to *strengthen* non-compete agreements and let employers lock up their employees for up to four years. Ladies and gentlemen, the working class Republican Party! www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill...

New NBER paper finds that income growth—not housing supply elasticity—is the best predictor of housing prices & quantity: "Our results imply that housing supply constraints are quantitatively unimportant in explaining rising housing costs." www.nber.org/system/files... [Don't shoot the messenger.]