There's more real, genuine hope and promise for me in antitrust policy than in any other function of government at the moment. There's real change happening, and as you say here, it seems likely to escalate going forward. Thanks for all your hard work in organizing this info and supporting this change!
Congratulations to you and your staff. I hope the 70,000 readers who do not subscribe paying, realize the tremendous effort that goes into such detailed research.
What a great year for Anti-trust and anti-monopolies it has been! Keep on keeping on Matt, the anti-trust agenda is only going to get bigger and bigger from here on, and with enough clear information out there, the younger generation are going to become the biggest anti-trust activist class!
Lets just look at how big anti-trust has become and the support it now gets from Social Media.
- r/antiwork went from 80k subs in 2020 -> 2,300,000 subs in 2022
- r/technology, a subreddit with 13.5M subs has a lot of posts about anti-trust, some ranking in the all time voted. 112k upvotes: No.10 Bernie against monopolies, 99k votes: No.23 Ticketmaster. Dozens about Net Neutrality.
- Hackernews - you've no doubt seen the big traction your newsletter gets here Matt. Amazon prime inflating prices (1000+ votes), Booz Allen (396 votes), Kroger-Albertson (269 votes) but general anti-trust is also growing. FTC suing MSFT (400+ votes), FTC blocks Nvidia-Arm (722 votes), Judge blocks Penguin merger (200+ votes) etc
- Twitter - Livenation case was huge here. AOC's response got 350k+ likes. Stephen Kings response to Penguin being blocked 20k+.
- Youtube - MSFT/ATVI is the big news here, due to gaming. 10M+ views in total on the announcement, hundreds of thousands on the FTC suing news.
I think it is crucial for the American Economics Liberties Project to really start hammering to policymakers just how big the populous support it has is, mainly by focusing on growing its social media presence or boosting social media support like I did above. Other ways:
- Infographics and opportune statements to re iterate what Anti-trust is, yes the people/government have the power to end monopolies and how the people can help. Anti-trust needs to be common lexicon!
- The long reports AELP does are fantastic, however consider more frequent short reports as well on specific subjects. For instance, 1-2 page report showing how LiveNation/Ticketmaster may violate anti-trust law. Often times people know when something is unfair but do not know the data behind it and what law it violates.
- Hone in on which types of social media results in the best engagement. Seriously look into Reddit, which has many 100k-2M subbed reddits that have huge anti-trust support, ask for sidebar placement, approved posts or AMAs to raise awareness. Twitter is more unpredictable but the best place to get voices heard and start movements.
- Anti-trust's greatest advantage is that the people/workers are naturally PRO anti-trust. Worker/people movements scare companies more than anything. Maybe consider a portal/website to guide people on where to send anti-trust complaints, track current cases, maybe even a leaderboard on most submitted topics/mergers for politicians to easily see.
Finally, my predictions for 2023:
- FTC wins Meta/Within case, not only being historic in the first win against Big Tech but also due to the implications of now being able to stop Big Tech hoovering up early market leaders/startups in nascent markets.
- CMA will kill MSFT/ATVI, MSFT will abandon the acquisition with their reputation thoroughly dirtied. The biggest and most dangerous Big Tech company will get a long due taste of what actual competition looks like and this will be historic news.
- DOJ will block: Ticketmaste/LiveNation, Kroger/Albertson and Adobe/Figma, winning huge approval from the public.
- FTC will finally sue Amazon, likely Amazon/One Medical merger
- CMA will block Amazon/iRobot merger (encouraging FTC as well)
- Pro-monopolists, especially Republicans will go nuclear against the FTC/DOJ case. I would not be surprised if they attempted to dissolve the very existence of the FTC, and their only card is once again the extremist Supreme Court. Axon v FTC is going to be a crucial case.
- Congress may start looking into ways on making the FTC stronger in response to courts attempting to undermine or strip FTC power.
Congrats, Matt, on growing BIG and spreading its influence. I look forward to your reports. It has been quite a learning experience for me. When I first read your stuff (an article from a friend), I knew you were up to something good. Now I'm a convinced that your positions represent our best way forward in reorienting our political economy toward a level playing field, where the rules of the road are actually enforced. I will be keeping a close eye on our new governor here in PA, Josh Shapiro, and his administration on their enforcement of our state’s monopoly laws. Agitating with knowledge can be powerful, indeed. Happy New Year!
I'll add my congratulations for a great year and your expanding influence on policy. I've bookmarked this post to refer to during the year to see how your predictions work out. Judging from last year, it should go well.
Merry New Year. May it be a healthy and prosperous one for you and yours, Matt.
You are bringing moral sensibility and logic back to economics for us lower classes. Reaganomics is finally being subdued and the rich and powerful are going to have to consider other ways of doing business than profit grabbing. Public businesses will regain there position in supporting the common public. Fixed income citizens may begin to enjoy a rise in their standard of living. Thank you so much for your influence.
Regarding the $4billion dividend windfall from the Albertsons-Kroger that is currently suspended, I believe there is an easy way to determine its future prospects. The stock price of Apollo Capital traded at $49.15 (not far from its 52 week low of $45/share) on October 20 two days before the merger announcement. By December 1 it rose to $69.15, a 40% increase. On December 30 it closed at $63.79. If it holds its price up til the February hearing, then one can expect they will prevail with absconding with the $4 billion dividend. A return to the $49 share price would indicate they will be unsuccessful.
Congrats on a great 2022! 2023 looks to be a promising year for the anti monopoly movement and if Scott Galloway's newsletter is anything to go on, Khan and Kanter will have to keep their eyes on streaming. YouTubeTV and AppleTV making over the top offers to secure live sports means that they're looking to dominate this as well.
BIG is the only place I encounter discussions and reports on the machinations of finance and I wonder why, in a cause and effect American reality dominated by $$$$$ politics, I find so little reporting about the players involved in decisions that affect American lives and futures? It seems that almost all actual reporting, and there are some good journalist's on SbStk, is a report on the human consequences and chaos created by bad financial and political policy without addressing the core reason: the manipulation of $$$$$.
More across the board consistent name names reporting on American politicians and the financial players they're indebted to, by all journalist's, would go a long way in shifting the American national dialogue away from the sensationalized knee-jerk that narrows and distorts our understanding of the forces surrounding us.
There's more real, genuine hope and promise for me in antitrust policy than in any other function of government at the moment. There's real change happening, and as you say here, it seems likely to escalate going forward. Thanks for all your hard work in organizing this info and supporting this change!
Congratulations to you and your staff. I hope the 70,000 readers who do not subscribe paying, realize the tremendous effort that goes into such detailed research.
You rock, Matt, thank you for the work you're doing. I am honored to provide you $50 for your efforts. Only 3000 subscribers?. FFS.
What a great year for Anti-trust and anti-monopolies it has been! Keep on keeping on Matt, the anti-trust agenda is only going to get bigger and bigger from here on, and with enough clear information out there, the younger generation are going to become the biggest anti-trust activist class!
Lets just look at how big anti-trust has become and the support it now gets from Social Media.
- r/antiwork went from 80k subs in 2020 -> 2,300,000 subs in 2022
- r/technology, a subreddit with 13.5M subs has a lot of posts about anti-trust, some ranking in the all time voted. 112k upvotes: No.10 Bernie against monopolies, 99k votes: No.23 Ticketmaster. Dozens about Net Neutrality.
- Hackernews - you've no doubt seen the big traction your newsletter gets here Matt. Amazon prime inflating prices (1000+ votes), Booz Allen (396 votes), Kroger-Albertson (269 votes) but general anti-trust is also growing. FTC suing MSFT (400+ votes), FTC blocks Nvidia-Arm (722 votes), Judge blocks Penguin merger (200+ votes) etc
- Twitter - Livenation case was huge here. AOC's response got 350k+ likes. Stephen Kings response to Penguin being blocked 20k+.
- Youtube - MSFT/ATVI is the big news here, due to gaming. 10M+ views in total on the announcement, hundreds of thousands on the FTC suing news.
I think it is crucial for the American Economics Liberties Project to really start hammering to policymakers just how big the populous support it has is, mainly by focusing on growing its social media presence or boosting social media support like I did above. Other ways:
- Infographics and opportune statements to re iterate what Anti-trust is, yes the people/government have the power to end monopolies and how the people can help. Anti-trust needs to be common lexicon!
- The long reports AELP does are fantastic, however consider more frequent short reports as well on specific subjects. For instance, 1-2 page report showing how LiveNation/Ticketmaster may violate anti-trust law. Often times people know when something is unfair but do not know the data behind it and what law it violates.
- Hone in on which types of social media results in the best engagement. Seriously look into Reddit, which has many 100k-2M subbed reddits that have huge anti-trust support, ask for sidebar placement, approved posts or AMAs to raise awareness. Twitter is more unpredictable but the best place to get voices heard and start movements.
- Anti-trust's greatest advantage is that the people/workers are naturally PRO anti-trust. Worker/people movements scare companies more than anything. Maybe consider a portal/website to guide people on where to send anti-trust complaints, track current cases, maybe even a leaderboard on most submitted topics/mergers for politicians to easily see.
Finally, my predictions for 2023:
- FTC wins Meta/Within case, not only being historic in the first win against Big Tech but also due to the implications of now being able to stop Big Tech hoovering up early market leaders/startups in nascent markets.
- CMA will kill MSFT/ATVI, MSFT will abandon the acquisition with their reputation thoroughly dirtied. The biggest and most dangerous Big Tech company will get a long due taste of what actual competition looks like and this will be historic news.
- DOJ will block: Ticketmaste/LiveNation, Kroger/Albertson and Adobe/Figma, winning huge approval from the public.
- FTC will finally sue Amazon, likely Amazon/One Medical merger
- CMA will block Amazon/iRobot merger (encouraging FTC as well)
- Pro-monopolists, especially Republicans will go nuclear against the FTC/DOJ case. I would not be surprised if they attempted to dissolve the very existence of the FTC, and their only card is once again the extremist Supreme Court. Axon v FTC is going to be a crucial case.
- Congress may start looking into ways on making the FTC stronger in response to courts attempting to undermine or strip FTC power.
Congrats, Matt, on growing BIG and spreading its influence. I look forward to your reports. It has been quite a learning experience for me. When I first read your stuff (an article from a friend), I knew you were up to something good. Now I'm a convinced that your positions represent our best way forward in reorienting our political economy toward a level playing field, where the rules of the road are actually enforced. I will be keeping a close eye on our new governor here in PA, Josh Shapiro, and his administration on their enforcement of our state’s monopoly laws. Agitating with knowledge can be powerful, indeed. Happy New Year!
I'll add my congratulations for a great year and your expanding influence on policy. I've bookmarked this post to refer to during the year to see how your predictions work out. Judging from last year, it should go well.
Merry New Year. May it be a healthy and prosperous one for you and yours, Matt.
Well done, Matt and crew! Keep up the great work.
Congratulations! Now we need an anti-monopoly US Senator!
You are bringing moral sensibility and logic back to economics for us lower classes. Reaganomics is finally being subdued and the rich and powerful are going to have to consider other ways of doing business than profit grabbing. Public businesses will regain there position in supporting the common public. Fixed income citizens may begin to enjoy a rise in their standard of living. Thank you so much for your influence.
Regarding the $4billion dividend windfall from the Albertsons-Kroger that is currently suspended, I believe there is an easy way to determine its future prospects. The stock price of Apollo Capital traded at $49.15 (not far from its 52 week low of $45/share) on October 20 two days before the merger announcement. By December 1 it rose to $69.15, a 40% increase. On December 30 it closed at $63.79. If it holds its price up til the February hearing, then one can expect they will prevail with absconding with the $4 billion dividend. A return to the $49 share price would indicate they will be unsuccessful.
Congrats on a great 2022! 2023 looks to be a promising year for the anti monopoly movement and if Scott Galloway's newsletter is anything to go on, Khan and Kanter will have to keep their eyes on streaming. YouTubeTV and AppleTV making over the top offers to secure live sports means that they're looking to dominate this as well.
BIG is the only place I encounter discussions and reports on the machinations of finance and I wonder why, in a cause and effect American reality dominated by $$$$$ politics, I find so little reporting about the players involved in decisions that affect American lives and futures? It seems that almost all actual reporting, and there are some good journalist's on SbStk, is a report on the human consequences and chaos created by bad financial and political policy without addressing the core reason: the manipulation of $$$$$.
More across the board consistent name names reporting on American politicians and the financial players they're indebted to, by all journalist's, would go a long way in shifting the American national dialogue away from the sensationalized knee-jerk that narrows and distorts our understanding of the forces surrounding us.
Congrats and a BIG thank you for the work you and your team do and the positive effect it is having in the halls of power!