Introducing our series on how Washington works.
corporate power
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Seattle’s Biggest Corporations Try to Buy the City Council
Led by Amazon, which has poured $1.4 million into defeating socialist and progressive candidates, the city’s corporate sector wants to stop dead any talk of higher taxes funding public services.
Posted inTAP
Why Doesn’t Congress Do a Comprehensive Investigation of Amazon?
Today on TAP: Turning a blind eye to abuse of market power
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Private Utility Companies Keep Merging and Merging
A reported deal between PPL and Avangrid would create an East Coast energy giant with over 13 million customers. That could be bad for ratepayers, and the climate.
Posted inBooks
The Rise and Fall of Andrew Mellon
He was America’s most powerful businessman and the Treasury secretary throughout the 1920s. His corruption would lead to an impeachment inquiry.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
FTC Policy: Commissioner Phillips Downplays Potential Use of Sherman Act Section 2 to Block Mergers
The agency’s antitrust investigation of Facebook is ongoing.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
JPMorgan Gets Back Into the Electricity Business
An El Paso, Texas, electric utility is being purchased by an investment fund with deep, undisclosed ties to the big bank.
Posted inBooks
Monopoly and Its Discontents
Matt Stoller’s ‘Goliath’ seeks to recover and explain the anti-monopoly tradition of the 20th century, at a time when it is urgently needed in the 21st.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
It’s Time to Break Up Disney
The company known for Mickey Mouse is now a sprawling conglomerate in entertainment and beyond, and that’s a big problem.
Posted inEconomic Policy
How to Really End Shareholder Capitalism
It’s now increasingly clear that maximizing shareholder value has led to minimizing everything else a corporation could and should do.