Private equity firms are maneuvering to invest in college athletes, their schools, and the conferences they play in. The deals could add risk to the whole system.
antitrust
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
The Domination Tour
Four decades of intensifying corporate concentration turned the music industry into a wasteland of institutionalized control and abuse. Are antitrust enforcers ready to reckon with that?
Posted inTAP
Enter Big Money, Stage Right
Today on TAP: Crypto mega-investors and media monopolists threaten the Democrats.
Posted inVideos
The Prospect Weekly Roundup: What to Expect From the Next Four Years
This week on our live show, David Dayen and Luke Goldstein dive into Kamala Harris’s record.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Corporate Wishcasting Attack on Lina Khan
Billionaires are hopeful that Kamala Harris will break from the FTC chair. But she’s part of an entire network of policymakers who are actually governing in Washington.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
CrowdSuck
How did software designed to protect customers from paralyzing system disruptions instead cause what may be the most destructive software glitch in recorded history? A 2018 antitrust case holds some clues.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The American People Need An Anti-Price-Fixing Division
A formal, congressionally appropriated division would have the resources to go after pricing schemes.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Hello From the Middleman Economy
The reason things feel like they’re so broke is that they are.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Government Created the Most Profitable Company in America
Now, the Biden administration has the opportunity to slash the astronomical profit margins of VeriSign, the obscure company making a mint on annual .com website registrations.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Great Fishing Caper
A fishing conglomerate created a fake company to facilitate a merger. It could now be on the hook for billions of dollars.