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Interview with Austin Frerick, author of “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry”

By Kate Conlow
April 15, 2024
Image: Austin Frerick is the author of the book "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry," out later this month.
Austin Frerick is the author of the book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, out later this month, which explores the powerful corporations that monopolize entire sectors of the U.S. food system: from pork, beef, and dairy, to grains, coffee, berries, and grocery stores. In his book, Frerick illuminates the ugly... Read More

Did Economists Break the Economy? Review of Deaton’s Economics in America

By Hal Singer
April 11, 2024
Image: Angus Deaton's Economics in America explores the causes of inequality and offers a roadmap how to tame it.
After about a decade of teaching, it finally occurred to me that interviewing an accomplished economist (or economic critic) would be more entertaining—and hopefully more educational—than asking students to listen to me wax on about economic expert “war stories” for two hours. Also, by inviting a book author, I could compel students to digest the... Read More

Gig Workers Should Be Allowed To Organize. The FTC and DOJ Can Help Make That Happen.

By Bryce Tuttle
March 23, 2024
Image: Companies like Uber have fought tooth and nail to preserve their workers’ independent contractor status. (Jacob Lund/Getty Images)
As the name implies, Congress passed the antitrust laws to remedy the problem of the trusts—the great agglomerations of capital harming working people. Yet, from that very beginning, the forces of corporate power and oligarchy have used the antitrust laws to attack working people. When the federal government first deployed the antitrust laws against coordinated... Read More

So Long as Professional Teams Have Local Monopolies, Stadium Subsidies Will Never End

By David Berri
March 11, 2024
Image: A rendering of a new Utah Jazz/National Hockey League arena in Salt Lake City that team owner Ryan Smith released via Twitter.
According to J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State, owners of professional men’s sports teams have received more than $19 billion in taxpayer subsidies this century. And according to a recent article in the Salt Lake City Tribune, men’s professional sports around the United States continue to ask for billions more. The root of... Read More

The Most Terrifying Words in Lina Khan’s Stand-Up Comedy Routine

By Laurel Kilgour
March 5, 2024
Image: Image credit: Tumisu on Pixabay
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” – Ronald Reagan At recent events, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission and mug-emblazoner Lina Khan has taken to quoting Reagan’s cherished tagline above. Not to express ideological alignment, but as a springboard for workshopping her... Read More

Neoliberal Pundit Cannot Fathom How a Company’s “Dynamic” Pricing Scheme Could Harm Customers

By Max Moran
March 5, 2024
Image: Wendy's proposed "dynamic" pricing scheme generated a host of memes on Twitter. Neoliberals didn't understand the outrage.
Want to know why the Washington Post is bleeding readership? Consider this editorial by Catherine Rampell, titled “Stop Your Populist Grandstanding over Wendy’s ‘Surge Pricing.’” If the poors only understood basic economics, they wouldn’t get so frazzled over something so efficient like discounting! For those who missed out on the fireworks, a quick recap is... Read More

The Proposed Merger of Capital One and Discover Deserves Rigorous Scrutiny

By Dylan Gyauch-Lewis
March 4, 2024
Image: Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover should be subjected to serious antitrust scrutiny.
Last month, Capital One announced that it plans to purchase Discover in a deal worth $35.3 billion. For their campaign to secure regulatory approval, Capital One is trying to act like a benevolent pro-consumer company that will use economies of scale to lower interest rates  and ramp up competition with Visa and Mastercard. But that’s... Read More

Lina Khan Sucks, by The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (SATIRE)

By Darren Bush
March 4, 2024
Image: FTC Chair Lina Khan speaks at an event on Antitrust, Labor, and Economic Opportunity at Harvard Law School on Feb. 21. Credit: Lorin Granger
Although the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is ostensibly an “independent agency,” its chair, Lina Khan, has been authorized by President Biden to destroy capitalism. Chair Khan has hijacked trade policy along with left-wing groups. Her approach to Amazon—a subject from which she should recuse her herself as she wrote an article on Amazon in law... Read More

Enforcers as Healers: Can Enforcers Cure the Losses Hospital Deserts Cause to Millions of Americans?

By Theodosia Stavroulaki
February 29, 2024
Image: Recent data show that since 2005, more than 150 rural hospitals have shut their doors and more than 30% of all hospitals in rural areas are at immediate risk of closure.
Healthcare in rural America has hit a crisis point. Although the health of people living in rural areas is worse than those living in metropolitan areas, rural populations are deprived of the healthcare services they deserve and need. Rural residents are more likely to be poor and uninsured than urban residents. They are also more... Read More

In Finding a Buyer for U.S. Steel, Security Concerns Can’t Trump Harms to Competition

By Hal Singer
February 25, 2024
Image: Steelworkers at U.S. Steel's new pig iron plant in Gary, Indiana.
In condemning Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel, many politicians, from John Fetterman to Donald Trump, are ignoring the severe costs of the alternative tie-up with a domestic steel-making rival—the harms to competition in both labor and product markets from the alternative merger with Cleveland-Cliffs (the “alternative merger”). Whatever security concerns might flow from... Read More

Interview with Austin Frerick, author of “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry”

By Kate Conlow
April 15, 2024
Image: Austin Frerick is the author of the book "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry," out later this month.
Austin Frerick is the author of the book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, out later this month, which explores the powerful corporations that monopolize entire sectors of the U.S. food system: from pork, beef, and dairy, to grains, coffee, berries, and grocery stores. In his book, Frerick illuminates the ugly... Read More

Did Economists Break the Economy? Review of Deaton’s Economics in America

By Hal Singer
April 11, 2024

After about a decade of teaching, it finally occurred to me that interviewing an accomplished economist (or economic critic) would be more entertaining—and hopefully more educational—than asking students to listen to me wax on about economic expert “war stories” for two hours. Also, by inviting a book author, I could compel students to digest the... Read More

Image: Angus Deaton's Economics in America explores the causes of inequality and offers a roadmap how to tame it.

Gig Workers Should Be Allowed To Organize. The FTC and DOJ Can Help Make That Happen.

By Bryce Tuttle
March 23, 2024

As the name implies, Congress passed the antitrust laws to remedy the problem of the trusts—the great agglomerations of capital harming working people. Yet, from that very beginning, the forces of corporate power and oligarchy have used the antitrust laws to attack working people. When the federal government first deployed the antitrust laws against coordinated... Read More

Image: Companies like Uber have fought tooth and nail to preserve their workers’ independent contractor status. (Jacob Lund/Getty Images)

So Long as Professional Teams Have Local Monopolies, Stadium Subsidies Will Never End

By David Berri
March 11, 2024

According to J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State, owners of professional men’s sports teams have received more than $19 billion in taxpayer subsidies this century. And according to a recent article in the Salt Lake City Tribune, men’s professional sports around the United States continue to ask for billions more. The root of... Read More

Image: A rendering of a new Utah Jazz/National Hockey League arena in Salt Lake City that team owner Ryan Smith released via Twitter.

The Most Terrifying Words in Lina Khan’s Stand-Up Comedy Routine

By Laurel Kilgour
March 5, 2024

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” – Ronald Reagan At recent events, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission and mug-emblazoner Lina Khan has taken to quoting Reagan’s cherished tagline above. Not to express ideological alignment, but as a springboard for workshopping her... Read More

Image: Image credit: Tumisu on Pixabay

Neoliberal Pundit Cannot Fathom How a Company’s “Dynamic” Pricing Scheme Could Harm Customers

By Max Moran
March 5, 2024

Want to know why the Washington Post is bleeding readership? Consider this editorial by Catherine Rampell, titled “Stop Your Populist Grandstanding over Wendy’s ‘Surge Pricing.’” If the poors only understood basic economics, they wouldn’t get so frazzled over something so efficient like discounting! For those who missed out on the fireworks, a quick recap is... Read More

Image: Wendy's proposed "dynamic" pricing scheme generated a host of memes on Twitter. Neoliberals didn't understand the outrage.

The Proposed Merger of Capital One and Discover Deserves Rigorous Scrutiny

By Dylan Gyauch-Lewis
March 4, 2024

Last month, Capital One announced that it plans to purchase Discover in a deal worth $35.3 billion. For their campaign to secure regulatory approval, Capital One is trying to act like a benevolent pro-consumer company that will use economies of scale to lower interest rates  and ramp up competition with Visa and Mastercard. But that’s... Read More

Image: Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover should be subjected to serious antitrust scrutiny.

Lina Khan Sucks, by The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board (SATIRE)

By Darren Bush
March 4, 2024

Although the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is ostensibly an “independent agency,” its chair, Lina Khan, has been authorized by President Biden to destroy capitalism. Chair Khan has hijacked trade policy along with left-wing groups. Her approach to Amazon—a subject from which she should recuse her herself as she wrote an article on Amazon in law... Read More

Image: FTC Chair Lina Khan speaks at an event on Antitrust, Labor, and Economic Opportunity at Harvard Law School on Feb. 21. Credit: Lorin Granger

Enforcers as Healers: Can Enforcers Cure the Losses Hospital Deserts Cause to Millions of Americans?

By Theodosia Stavroulaki
February 29, 2024

Healthcare in rural America has hit a crisis point. Although the health of people living in rural areas is worse than those living in metropolitan areas, rural populations are deprived of the healthcare services they deserve and need. Rural residents are more likely to be poor and uninsured than urban residents. They are also more... Read More

Image: Recent data show that since 2005, more than 150 rural hospitals have shut their doors and more than 30% of all hospitals in rural areas are at immediate risk of closure.

In Finding a Buyer for U.S. Steel, Security Concerns Can’t Trump Harms to Competition

By Hal Singer
February 25, 2024

In condemning Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel, many politicians, from John Fetterman to Donald Trump, are ignoring the severe costs of the alternative tie-up with a domestic steel-making rival—the harms to competition in both labor and product markets from the alternative merger with Cleveland-Cliffs (the “alternative merger”). Whatever security concerns might flow from... Read More

Image: Steelworkers at U.S. Steel's new pig iron plant in Gary, Indiana.

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