In this co-written essay, legal director Sandeep Vaheesan and chief economist Brian Callaci deliver the argument that today’s “state capacity” discourse wrongly blames democratic procedures for government failure, when the real solution is not deregulated, top-down speed but renewed democratic governance that balances effective state action with public participation and legitimacy.

Open Markets Institute, alongside partner organisations Article 19, the Balanced Economy Project and SOMO, made a detailed submission to the European Commission urging officials to open an in-depth investigation into Google’s proposed acquisition of the cloud security firm Wiz.

In this issue, we look at Amazon’s recent lawsuit that aims to keep Perplexity’s AI agents from “intruding” on Amazon’s website, in a case that could help determine the future of the emerging AI agent market.

Food program manager Claire Kelloway comparing New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed city-run grocery stores to government-run grocery stores for the military.

CJL program manager Karina Montoya takes stock of Google’s YouTube TV growth in live TV streaming, and what its clashes with TV programmers mean as Big Tech continues to be an unregulated actor in streaming services.

In this issue, we explore Google’s growing power in the television industry, as the tech giant uses YouTube T V to squeeze major TV programmers like Fox and Disney.

CJL director Courtney Radsch contends that both the Netflix and Paramount–Skydance bids for Warner Bros. Discovery would deepen media concentration in ways that endanger free speech, audience choice, and democracy by placing cultural storytelling and news under the control of conglomerates willing to bend to political pressure.

Europe research fellow Claire Lavin co-wrote an article arguing that Google’s proposed $32 billion acquisition of Wiz would dangerously concentrate control over Europe’s cloud security infrastructure in the hands of a U.S. tech gatekeeper, threatening competition, data governance, and digital sovereignty—and must be rigorously investigated and potentially blocked by EU regulators.

Open Markets submitted submitted written testimony to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust with regard to its January 7th hearing, "Full Stream Ahead: Competition and Consumer Choice in Digital Streaming,” concerning Netflix’s proposal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

CJL director Courtney Radsch argues that today’s AI systems—shaped by market concentration, surveillance-based business models, and weak regulation—are evolving into an infrastructure of cognitive control that threatens freedom of thought, human agency, and democracy unless firm legal, structural, and human-rights–based constraints are imposed.