Publications
Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan published an op-ed on Financial Times' Alphaville explaining why America's prosperity depends on stopping mega mergers. He looks at the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger and makes the case as to how this merger will not only further concentrate and wireless market from four big players to three but subsequently harm the public by raising prices and workers in the industry by resulting in lower wages.
Read MoreOpen Markets Food & Power reporter Claire Kelloway covers the story of a class-action lawsuit by the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) alleging that dominant meatpackers conspired to depress cattle prices starting in 2015. The case argues that JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef strategically cut back on open market cattle bids, closed plants, and imported costly foreign cattle in order to force farmers to accept lower prices and manipulate spot market cattle values.
Read MoreOpen Markets is pleased to see Mayor Buttigieg and Rep. O’Rourke consider the question of corporate power, but Buttigieg appears confused and O’Rourke appears to be sitting on the fence.
Read MoreOpen Markets' Food & Power reporter Claire Kelloway published a feature on Talk Poverty about how the meat processing industry is about to get a lot worse thanks to a new pork inspection rule the Trump administration is seeking to pass. The new rule would have inspection lines run even faster and plant employees will have to take responsibility for visual inspection of meat, putting workers and eaters at risk.
Read MoreThe New York Times talks to Open Markets Institute fellow Matt Stoller about the rumored $3 to 5 billion dollar fine the Federal Trade Commission intends to levy against Facebook. His quote describing the fine as a "parking-ticket-level penalty" made the NYT's Quote of the Day.
Read MoreOpen Markets Institute fellow Matt Stoller makes The New York Times' Quotation of the Day on Apr. 24, 2019: “This would be a joke of a fine — a two-weeks-of-revenue, parking-ticket-level penalty for destroying democracy.”
Read MoreDavid Dayen reports the story of Shaoul Sussman, a law student at Fordham University, who may be able to prove Amazon profitably engages in predatory pricing. “It’s long overdue for a rethinking of predatory pricing,” says Open Markets Institute fellow Matt Stoller.
Read MoreOpen Markets Institute applauds Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) for calling for the break-up of the big tech platforms, and for accurately characterizing them as “engines for discrimination, harassment, misinformation and extremism.”
Read MoreWelcome to The Corner. In this issue, we discuss why the FTC had to spend two years proving that it was illegal for a drug monopolist to pay off its competitor. And we share two new feature articles by Open Markets team.
Read MoreOpen Markets Institute is one of 24 signatories to a coalition letter, organized by 4Competition, to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Communications Commission strongly opposing the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.
Read MoreBristol-Myers Squibb Co. won shareholder approval for its $74 billion takeover of Celgene Corp., closing “the largest pharmaceutical merger in history”, according to Bloomberg. Open Markets calls on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block this deal.
Read MoreIn an interview Sunday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she has closed her account on Facebook, due to concerns about the “public health risk” posed by the platform.
Read MoreMotherboard reporter Rob Dozier reports on how industry association lobbying defanged the Illinois Keep Internet Devices Safe Act, which would have empowered average people to sue big companies for recording them without consent. He cites Open Markets fellow Matt Stoller for sharing the lobbying groups' statements on Twitter.
Read MoreSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), interviewed on the Recode podcast this week, said “There are clear lines that we see in...companies that maybe could be easily broken up, without any impact, one on the other. I’m a big believer in the antitrust laws.”
Read MoreOpen Markets' reporter Claire Kelloway writes about the nation’s fourth-largest beef packer National Beef's plans to take over Sysco-owned Iowa Premium, a regional packer focused on processing black angus steers for the Upper Midwest and how this merger threatens America’s last competitive cash cattle market.
Read MoreOpen Markets Editorial and Policy Director Phil Longman published a feature piece on the Washington Monthly explaining how corporations primary objective in collecting your personal data is to gouge you. He explains how today's big tech platforms are no different from historic network industries — railroads and the telegraph — and how considering price discrimination should be an important standard in the national privacy debate.
Read MoreIn a feature published in the Washington Monthly, Open Markets’ Policy and Editorial Director Phil Longman draws attention to the mounting problem of price discrimination on the internet. Corporations are wringing every penny from your purchases by offering you unique prices and terms service based on their surveillance of your personal online data.
Read MoreAmid controversy over President Trump's "new NAFTA", Open Markets fellow Beth Baltzan joins the trade debate with a groundbreaking essay on the Washington Monthly calling for a bold rethink of America’s trade policies to curb corporate power, protect workers and the environment.
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