Publications
The FTC has proposed to settle a market allocation scheme among three leading rent-to-own operators with a "do not break the law again" order and also opted not to challenge an illegal interlocking directorate arrangement among two of them. The rent-to-own industry is a part of the fringe financial sector (think payday and title lenders, pawn shops, and check cashers) that preys on the working poor squeezed by low and volatile incomes and denied access to conventional credit.
Read MoreThe Open Markets Institute calls on Congress, the Trump administration, and federal and state law enforcement agencies to use their various powers to impose an immediate ban on all mergers and acquisitions by any corporation with more than $100 million in annual revenue, and by any financial institution or equity fund with more than $100 million in capitalization.
Read MoreOpen Markets Details Our Webpage on Supply Chain Monopoly and Systems Fragility, Sally Hubbard’s Recent Testimony to the U.S. Senate, and Explain Our Comment to the USDA
Read MoreOMI director of enforcement strategy Sally Hubbard published an article on ProMarket, deconstructing the manner in which Tech Giants utilize their “platform privilege” to give preferential treatment to their own products and services.
Read MoreThe Open Markets team has long been the leader in America in highlighting the ways in which concentration of production capacity can make industrial, financial, and information systems subject to catastrophic crashes.
Read MoreBarry Lynn publishes an article discussing straightforward politics of industrial interdependence and dependence, in a system marked by extreme concentrations of industrial capacity.
Read MoreIn a comment filed with the USDA, the Open Markets Institute urges the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to curtail meatpackers’ abusive tactics and to stand up to judicial overreach by reviving the Packers and Stockyards Act (PSA).
Read MoreOpen Markets Details Our FTC Comment Regarding the Proposed Vertical Merger Guidelines and Present Our Views on the Supreme Court’s 2018 Decision Ohio v. American Express
Read MoreExecutive Director Barry C. Lynn co-wrote this piece with Yossi Sheffi, examining how some industry trends are creating vulnerabilities that may produce systemic supply chain risks. This is the first article in which an engineer recognized the systemic nature of international production arrangements and the potential for cascading crashes.
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