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In The Atlantic: Amazon’s Big Secret
Amazon has long cultivated the idea that it runs its shopping platform at razor-thin margins, relying instead on AWS for its profits. In fact, Amazon’s e-commerce marketplace is enormously profitable. In The Atlantic, Stacy Mitchell writes about how Amazon has kept these profits secret – and why the SEC must enforce corporate financial disclosure rules.… Read More
Chicago City Council Votes to Rein In Dollar Store Development
Another city is fighting back against dollar chains. The Chicago City Council has voted to enact an ordinance that will limit development of new chain dollar stores. Over 60 other cities and towns have enacted similar ordinances in recent years, but Chicago is the largest city to date to do so.… Read More
In the Chicago Tribune: Why Chicago Needs to Limit Dollar Stores
“Eliminating food deserts requires many solutions. But there is one absolutely essential action: preventing dollar stores from proliferating,” Tulsa City Council Member Vanessa Hall-Harper and ILSR Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith wrote in The Chicago Tribune in support of a proposal to limit dollar stores. … Read More
ILSR Responds to the CFPB’s Proposed Guardrails for Digital Banking
ILSR supports the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed “open banking” rule to establish important guardrails for digital banking. But it needs additional provisions to ensure that smaller, relationship-oriented financial institutions can access fair competition.… Read More
Small Business Rising is Moving the Antitrust Debate
The Small Business Rising coalition is playing a pivotal role in the push for stronger antitrust. … Read More
In The Nation: the FTC Lawsuit Against Amazon Is the Biggest Antitrust Fight of Our Time
This lawsuit is a testament to the power of a grassroots coalition determined to check Amazon’s dominance — and a test of whether the federal government has the power, and the political will, to rein in corporate monopoly power, writes Ron Knox in The Nation.… Read More
Community Wins: How Do You Buy Groceries When There’s No Grocery Store? These Communities Figured It Out
From mobile markets to refrigerated food pick-up lockers, communities are exploring innovative new approaches to making sure their residents have convenient, affordable access to healthy food. Check out the latest in our Community Wins series. … Read More
ILSR Submits Comments to Strengthen Proposed Merger Guidelines
ILSR submitted an in-depth comment letter applauding the FTC and DOJ for the significant changes contained in the agencies’ Draft Merger Guidelines and suggesting ways the agencies should amend their draft guidelines to better discern and block harmful mergers, promote a decentralized economy, safeguard American liberty, and fulfill the aims of the antitrust laws enacted by Congress.… Read More
Why the Antitrust Revolution is Likely To Last
Stacy Mitchell explains why this pivotal moment in antitrust can last beyond its current leaders at our enforcement agencies. Her piece is part of a series of two dozen essays on the state of the U.S. revolution in antitrust, published by The Journal of Antitrust Enforcement.… Read More
Getting Capital to Underserved Entrepreneurs: Some Pandemic Lessons
In Nonprofit Quarterly, ILSR Senior Researcher Kennedy Smith describes the federal Equitable Lending Leaders program and some of its biggest lessons.… Read More
The Biden Administration’s Proposed Merger Guidelines: An Explainer
The Biden Administration’s proposed merger guidelines represent a significant shift in policy from the current guidelines. If implemented, the guidelines would help stop harmful mergers that concentrate power in too few hands. Our new explainer breaks down the basics of the new merger guidelines and explains how they could reshape merger enforcement, the economy, and our democracy.… Read More
Share Your Story. How Has Monopoly Affected Your Life, Your Business, Your Community?
The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division are proposing new Merger Guidelines and they want you to share your stories. You are the experts on how monopolies — like Amazon, CVS, Dollar General, Comcast, and beyond — have impacted your communities and these stories are key to ensuring the final guidelines are strong. See the link in this post on how to share your stories!… Read More
Community Wins: In the Face of Consolidation, Communities are Opening Their Own Grocery Stores
Communities are adopting innovative strategies to sustain their grocery stores or create new ones amidst the challenges posed by grocery sector consolidation. Some local governments are even creating a public option by operating grocery stores themselves. Here’s how these places are ensuring access to fresh, healthy food. … Read More
In Project Syndicate: Is America’s Merger Fever Breaking?
A major shift is afoot in the federal government’s stance on big business. The US Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission’s draft merger guidelines represent a major break with the neoliberal assumptions that have underpinned US antitrust enforcement for the last 40 years. In the Project Syndicate, Stacy Mitchell and Ron Know write how the draft guidelines, if adopted, would stop runaway corporate consolidation, rebuild local economies, and help preserve US democracy.… Read More
In Civil Eats: Pacific Seafood Controls the Dungeness Crab Market, but Small Crabbers Are Fighting Back
Small fishermen in the Pacific Northwest are taking a stand against Pacific Seafood, the dominant West Coast crab processor, alleging that the corporation is exploiting its power to manipulate industry regulations in its favor and drive down the prices the fishermen receive for their catch. Writing in Civil Eats, Ron Knox provides our latest dispatch on how local economies are suffering the effects of unchecked monopoly power.… Read More