AI’s real contribution to humanity could be maximizing corporate profit by preying on personal data to raise prices. In fact, it’s already happening.
Economic Policy
Posted inEconomic Policy
Sources of America’s Hidden Inflation
How market power jacks up prices, and how Trump’s policies add to the pressure
Posted inEconomic Policy
Selling the Poor on Spending Like They’re Rich
How plutonomy, premiumization, and social media squeeze the middle class
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Historic Reversal of Cultural Affordability
America used to be a pioneer in democratizing culture.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Beyond America First
Countries in the Global South increasingly view President Trump’s “America First” foreign economic policies as both a coercive force and a catalyst for greater economic autonomy.
Posted inEconomic Policy
The Wrist-Slappers Strike Again
A settlement with algorithmic collusion facilitator RealPage allows it to keep allegedly ill-gotten profits and continue innovating to raise rents.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Your Money Means Market Power for Banks
Deposits are the raw materials with which bankers play, the key to unlocking market power, as giants like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase demonstrate.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Credit Unions Go Large and Go Rogue
Intended to bolster local access to lending, large credit unions today are swallowing up community banks. A Trump purge has reduced their oversight to one regulator.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Make Argentina Crash Again: On Milei’s Neoliberal Experiment
The short-term political boost to the Argentine president’s fortunes is unlikely to continue, as the familiar cycle of crisis and default looms.
Posted inEconomic Policy
New York Gets Serious About Food Prices
State lawmakers could work with Zohran Mamdani’s administration to tackle high food prices through a combination of his public grocery proposal and a proposed antitrust law.