You're Probably Getting Screwed

2nd Annual Anti-Monopoly Summit Recap

Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.

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I want to talk about the 2nd Annual Anti-Monopoly Summit that took place this week. 

We talk about inflation, greedflation, shrinkflation and how economic policy favors Wall Street over Main Street. 

With the U.S. House being run by Republicans and the U.S. Senate being run by Democrats, who is looking out for us? 

A huge part of that answer are the speakers at the Summit. Last year, at the very first Anti-Monopoly Summit, the mood was “5 years ago, we could never have had this…” This year the vibe was more “here’s what we're doing, let’s do more...”

The Summit started off with Federal Trade Commision Chair Lina Khan, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra and Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division Jonathon Kanter all talking about how their agencies are improving the lives of the American people. 

The best way to sum things up is with this social media post:

In fact, these agencies were praised by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “The more you can show you can fight back, and make government work, that’s what gets it going. These agencies [FTC, DOJ, CFPB, etc.] are doing work that is important to our economy, important to our competitiveness, and important to the financial health of America, and they ought to be fully funded to do that work.”

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) gave the closing keynote saying “Economic inputs just don’t match economic outputs because the rules are rigged to protect the status quo and concentrated economic power. People on the right and the left get this and aren’t satisfied with solutions that don’t speak to economic power, where it is and where it isn’t.”

“Both the right and the left are also exhausted by this relentless commercialization of everything that’s not tied down,” added Senator Murphy. “The erasure of everything that matters to us — healthcare, education, electricity, to the common space…Today, citizenship is just consumerism. To be a good American, all you have to do is just buy things—and that’s exhausting people.”

And Sen. Warren preaches about why we do this Substack every week “Corporations are too damn big, have too much power, and are tricking and trapping American consumers. The folks that understand this best are not the people who live in Washington. It’s the folks who live everywhere else, and they live with it every single day.”

The last thing I took away from the Summit is that there’s no doubt that the Anti-Monopoly movement is growing. 

Shoutout to the American Economic Liberties Project for hosting and thank you to all of the partners and sponsors that put on the event. 

To watch the Summit, you can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/TTxOMITDOhw?si=YHlXg64VXg-D7db0

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Live-Nation/Ticketmaster

The ticketing and event giant controls 70% of the market and uses that power to charge junk fees and exploit artists, venues and fans. But in some good news that I wanted to put up top, the DOJ and nearly 30 states have announced an antitrust suit seeking to break them up. 

 

Ag Checkoff Dollars

Ag Checkoffs are supposed to be used to promote products, like the “Where’s the Beef” campaign and “Got Milk.” However, they are now often funneled to lobbying organizations that represent the world’s largest meatpackers and grain traders, which then work against the interests of the very farmers and ranchers mandated to pay into the programs. To raise awareness of this, Farm Action is going to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Alabama and North Dakota for the Enough is Enough Tour.

Private Equity

The restaurant chain Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy and while jokes about “endless shrimp” abound, the real cause of the firm’s troubles is the slash and burn model of private equity, which purchased the chain in 2014 and loaded it up with debt. 

Shareholders

Investors in Boeing, the company that makes airplanes that fall apart in the sky, voted to approve a $33 million pay package for outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun. Must be tough being in charge of a manufacturing monopoly. 

Sports Team Owners

The New York Yankees are one of the richest pro sports teams and yet their owner yesterday claimed the club’s current payroll is not “financially sustainable.” Speaking of financial sustainability, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars football team wants anywhere between $625 and $925 million from taxpayers to build a new stadium. 

SOME GOOD NEWS

Consumer protections are constitutional

The Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision affirmed the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and its funding structure. The CFPB was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren and part of legislation passed after the financial crisis in the mid 2000s.

New York reintroduces groundbreaking antitrust reform

The 21st Century Antitrust Act is a sweeping antitrust bill that would “update New York’s century-old antitrust laws to address the abuses of today’s mega-corporations” stopping them from using their “dominant position in the market to exploit workers and small businesses,” according to the Teamsters Union, a key supporter of the legislation. 

New Jersey staffs up

Matthew Platkin, the Attorney General of New Jersey, announced this week the creation of a new permanent Antitrust Litigation and Competition Enforcement Section. If you know of any attorneys in New Jersey that want to help bust up monopolies, Platkin is hiring!

BEFORE YOU GO

2024 Antimonopoly Summit

The American Economic Liberties Project hosted their annual Antimonopoly Summit in DC on Tuesday and it is worth checking out! Speakers included Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris Murphy, FTC Chair Lina Khan, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter and CFPB Director Rohit Chopra among many others. You can watch the entire thing below.

 

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.

Standing Tall for All,

JD Scholten