Organized Money

Spirit Airlines is dead, and everyone is pointing fingers: Was it the war in Iran that killed Spirit? Joe Biden's Justice Department? Antitrust regulation? Jet fuel? Lina Khan!?? Today on the show we demystify Spirit's demise with William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project. William is a long-time consumer advocate in the air travel space and has watched as the deregulation project which began in the 1970s has slowly whittled down competition, forming our current aviation oligopoly. William walks us through all the factors that lead to Spirit's liquidation, from jet fuel, to pricing squeeze from the big 4 airlines, to Trump's proposed bailout and creditors seeking a payout. Despite the popular narratives you might hear on CNBC, Spirit's undoing was multifaceted with history of blame going back 50 years, and many killers working in concert. Check out the white paper How to Fix Flying: A New Approach to Regulating the Airline Industry, by William McGee and Ganesh Sitaraman

Ashley Keller is a pioneer in getting corporations to pay up. As an attorney and founding partner of the firm Keller Postman, only recently he pioneered an influential mass arbitration strategy, argued a case against Monsanto at the Supreme Court, and is fighting Google on behalf of several states in a major ad tech antitrust case. Keller is also an avowed conservative and originalist. For him, there's no contradiction between fighting for conservative principles and antitrust enforcement.Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Keller about the conservative case for antitrust, the dangers of corporate power, and his legal worldview. They go into detail on his current work against Google and the programmatic ad market, and  his recent appearance at The Supreme Court, and get his take on the Live Nation Ticketmaster case. They also discuss the role of plaintiff's lawyers in the legal ecosystem, and get into some big picture legal questions about antitrust enforcement from an originalist perspective. 

Yet another consequence of the war in Iran is a looming supply shock in plastics. Plastics, which are derived from oil byproducts, are everywhere, but their origins remain somewhat mysterious to the average consumer. Today on the show we demystify the plastics industry with Beth Gardiner, author of the new book Plastic Inc.: The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil's Biggest Bet an expose of the industry that underlies modern consumer culture. Together with Matt and David, they discuss where plastics come from, how they are made, and how the situation in Iran will affect the supply chain. They also get into the major players, the semi-scam that is recycling, and whether non fossil fuel alternatives are a viable solution in a world that is already up to its knees in plastic. 

Matt and David are live from a conference room in Chicago to break down the Live Nation Ticketmaster verdict! Live Nation was just found to be an illegal monopoly in a dramatic jury trial which saw the Trump administration drop out of the case with a surprise settlement. The states picked up the baton from there. Matt and David cover the decision, the history of Ticketmaster’s tangles with Pearl Jam and the Justice Department, and how the current case played out, and what the decision means for the future of Ticketmaster, and the antitrust movement. 

On March 17th, the candidate Daniel Biss defeated 15 other democratic challengers in the primary election for Illinois' 9th Congressional District. It was one of the most closely watched in the country, in which Biss, and other candidates, were up against millions of dollars in ad spending from dark money super pacs like "Elect Chicago Women", and "Chicago Progressive Partnership". These vaguely-named pacs were all fronts for AIPAC, the big-spending Pro-Israel lobbying group which threw money and ads at various candidates, in hopes of electing Laura Fine, who eventually came in third. Biss won by putting AIPAC, and their influence, at the center of his campaign. Today on the show Matt and David talk with Biss about what it's like to go up against the AIPAC lobbying machine, how these pacs used their vast resources to distort the race in real time, and what the democrats should do if they take back congress in the upcoming midterms. 

Ever since the US and Israel began bombing Iran, the Strait Of Hormuz has become the most watched shipping lane in the world economy. The strait itself is just a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf Of Oman, but much of the world's oil and other crucial material, such as industrial helium, flow through it. Now, after weeks of bombing and retaliation, the strait is gummed up, with hundreds of ships stranded, little traffic, and no end in sight. We're already seeing prices at the pump begin to spike, and the stock market has cooled, but according to our guest, we haven't actually felt any true material shocks, yet. Today on the show Matt and David talk with Salvatore Mercogliano, former merchant marine, maritime history professor at Campbell University, and host of the popular What's Going on With Shipping? on Youtube. Together they break down what's happening, why the high prices we're seeing at the gas pump are only a precursor to actual shortages, and what to look for as we begin to feel the supply chain pinch. 

With the federal government largely stepping back from antitrust enforcement, who's picking up the slack? California Attorney General Rob Bonta makes the case that state attorneys general are filling the void,  and he's got the caseload to prove it. David and Matt speak with Bonta about his remarkable portfolio of active fights: the Ticketmaster/Live Nation trial (which the states pressed forward with after the DOJ settled), a price-fixing case against Amazon, social media addiction suits against Meta and TikTok, and a challenge to the Nexstar/TEGNA local TV merger that could give a single broadcaster control over news in 70% of American households. Bonta doesn’t shy away from describing what he sees in DC as corruption. He also has a direct message for anyone in Hollywood nervous about the Paramount/Warner Brothers investigation: it's not illegal to talk to his office and they want to hear from you.

As bombs started to fall on Iran, some Americans cashed in by placing bets on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi. These bets paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to users who almost certainly had inside information about the exact timing of the attacks. Similar bets were made on the assassination of Iran's Ayatollah, turning an act of murder into a commodity.As these markets have come to embrace acts of violence, often rife with insider trading, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has introduced legislation to curb betting on government actions and similar events. His bill, Banning Event Trading on Sensitive Operations and Federal Functions, or the BETS OFF Act, was introduced this past Tuesday.Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Sen. Murphy about the problem of prediction markets, both political and moral. They also get into the war in Iran, its rudderless trajectory, and the Pentagon’s $200 billion request to continue fighting, perhaps indefinitely. Finally, they discuss how to get out of the morass we have found ourselves in as a country that seems to keep making big, bad decisions, and ask whether Trump and the war are just symptoms of a larger problem plaguing America.

In a shocking turn of events, the federal government settled their longstanding anti-trust action against Live Nation after a week of in-court proceedings. This process was described as “mind-boggling” by the judge, and surprised counsel on both sides along with many states’ attorneys generals who are also suing Live Nation. Today on the show we break down the case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster (which it acquired back in 2010) with two guests: Gigi Liman, who is reporting on the trail for bigtechontrial.com, and Tommy Dorfman, a live music promoter who has been in litigation with Live Nation for over a decade. Together with Matt and David they break down the proceedings, how Live Nation uses mafia-like tactics to secure its monopoly, and where the case goes from here as states pick up the prosecutorial baton from a compromised federal justice department. 

This week we discuss the recently rediscovered history of midcentury lighting, the elegant modernist style of lamps and fixtures that emerged in small design firms and flourished from the 1940s through the 70s. By that point, they were being consumed by megacorporations that flattened their products’ quality and style, and they gradually drifted out of fashion, and memory. This style was spearheaded by a company called Modeline, but until recently dealers and scholars alike often misattributed their work and the work of similar designers. Our guest today is Nick Ferrell, a dealer, author of Modeline of California: Pioneer of Modern Lighting, and proprietor of Estheticvintage, who has been instrumental in correcting the record. Together we discuss the history of these nature-inspired lamps, how a spirit of artistic openness and economic solidarity fostered these beautiful objects, and how greed and consolidation spelled their end. 

In a shocking move this week, Netflix declined to raise its bid against Paramount for control of Warner Bros. After months of corporate tug-of-war, Paramount and David Ellison have taken a giant step towards controlling Warner Bros’ linear television assets, including CNN, its streaming service HBO Max, and its film studio, which just had a blockbuster year. Without question, this deal will lead to mass layoffs, fewer shops to sell work to in Hollywood, and leverage massive debt against Paramount: so why is Paramount and Trump-World so desperate for it, and why did Netflix get cold feet? Today on the show, Matt and David dig into the deal, its questionable legality, and how antitrust objections may play out from both federal and state attorneys general. 

Besides data centers, climate change, and regulatory capture, there is yet another reason utility rates are far outpacing inflation: private equity! On this episode, we try to understand why investor-owned utilities, which provide electricity to the majority of Americans, continue to reap profits at the expense of their customers. These entities are supposed to be regulated by state governments, but why is enforcement often so toothless? And why does venture capital want to get involved in something as thin-margined as utilities?To answer that, we are joined by Marissa Gillett, a former utility regulator and senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, along with James Baratta, a writing fellow at The American Prospect. Together, we try to untangle some of the regulatory spaghetti and dig into James’ recent reporting on the venture capital firm Blackstone’s bid to acquire a New Mexico utility, and the stock deal that could undo it if regulators are brave enough to follow the law.

The Epstein files lay bare the impunity the rich and powerful possess as a social class: The Epstein class. Today on the show, Matt and David dig into the Epstein files with one of the congressmen responsible for their release: Representative Ro Khanna. We discuss what the Epstein files tell us about the influence that wealth affords the people who run our economy and institutions: People like Bill Gates, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, and countless less-famous people who structure the world we live in, but are seemingly accountable to no rules at all. They also discuss Khanna’s recent decision to name some of the men listed in the unredacted files, how it feels to work with victims seeking justice, and how the government can restore trust with Americans in a post-Epstein world. 

After the government announced new regulations for Medicare Advantage, the market-based alternative to traditional Medicare, the stocks of healthcare companies that participate in the program plummeted. But why is this popular program in the crosshairs? And are these new Trump Administration rules actually...good?Today on the show, Olivia Kosloff, senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and creator of the newsletter Acute Condition, joins Matt and David to discuss Medicare Advantage and how a program that was intended to be cheaper for the government than traditional Medicare has become far more expensive. In addition to problems that have plagued the program since its inception, AI is now being used as a new tool for insurers to extract money from the government. They also discuss how insurers are reacting to the new rules, the future of the program, and whether we need Medicare Advantage at all.

As The Department and Homeland Security and ICE see their budget balloon, anything unrelated to to immigration is getting short shrift. Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Richard Powers, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at The Justice Department, and the former Acting Assistant Attorney General at the Antitrust Division, to discuss the consequences of ignoring antitrust and white collar crime. They discuss the post-DOGE state of The Justice Department, the culture of prosecution (or lack thereof) that dominated the antitrust division through the Obama and first Trump era, and how to make budgeting antitrust a priority. 

We tend to think of the law as a public asset - centuries of statutes, common law, and legal precedents that shape how society governs itself. So why is the law itself so hard and so expensive to access? Matt and David talk with Mike Lissner of the Free Law Project about the quiet duopoly that controls legal information, how Westlaw and LexisNexis turned public court records into pricey commodities, and why even the federal government charges by the page to read your own laws. Along the way, they uncover a system that drives up legal costs, shuts regular people out of justice, creates real security risks, and stifles innovation and explore how a scrappy nonprofit might finally crack it open. 

This week Matt and David talk with pricing expert Lindsay Owens about Google's plan to turn its Gemini AI into your personal shopping assistant. It sounds convenient until you realize it's actually a massive surveillance pricing operation. Google just announced partnerships with Walmart, Visa, MasterCard, and others to use everything they know about you (emails, photos, calendar, searches) to help retailers personalize prices and steer you toward higher-priced products. Lindsay, who went viral calling this out on Twitter, explains how Google's own reply basically admitted they "restrain price", a pretty wild admission for a company facing antitrust lawsuits. It's a sobering conversation about how AI shopping could turbocharge price discrimination, why major retailers are handing over their pricing power to Google, and whether we can stop this before it's too late. 

In the twilight of the Biden Administration, FTC Chair Lina Khan filed a price-fixing case against Pepsi, using the powerful but little-enforced Robinson-Patman Act. A few months into Trump’s 2025 term, that lawsuit was dead and buried by the new regime, leaving only a bunch of redacted documents and a lot of questions for the public to pore over. Our guest today is Stacy Mitchell, the co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who recently convinced a judge to release those files. Together, Matt and David break down how Pepsi and Walmart worked together to set “price gaps,” and how similar techniques are used throughout the economy, driving up prices for everyone, even as Walmart gets to take credit for having the lowest prices around.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

As a holiday treat, we bring you a new conversation with author and Organized Money alum Cory Doctorow about his new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. Recorded earlier this year at a live book event, David asks Cory to expand on the thesis of the book: that digital platforms are now locked in a cycle of decay, seeing our technology become less intuitive, less useful, and less private. For Cory, this cycle is a choice, driven by government policy favoring lax antitrust enforcement, strong digital rights management, and wholesale regulatory capture. In this wide ranging conversation they discuss how market consolidation and DRM has shifted the balance of power away from workers, who are no longer able to defend themselves with the technology they are forced to use. They also get into the history of digital rights management, why Cory isn't on Audible, algorithmic pricing, and how coalition building and policy change might just be the way out of the enshitification cycle. Organized Money will be back in the new year. Thanks for listening! 

The Warner Bros. deal could decimate the film industry in California, and yet almost no state-level politicians have spoken out about it. Today on the show, Matt and David talk to a California gubernatorial candidate who has vocally opposed the deal: Tom Steyer. Tom is a former financier, 2020 presidential candidate, and billionaire, who happens to be the most vocally anti-monopoly candidate in the race. Tom's background in business and personal wealth makes him an unusual candidate, but it also gives him a sense of how money and competition work than most candidates with anti-monopoly policies. We talk with him about why he opposes the Warner Bros. deal, how to reign in utility boards, housing regulation, and what, exactly, "affordability" means. This is our last regular episode of Organized Money for 2025, but we'll have a special episode recorded live for you next week, and see you again in the new year. 

College sports is a multibillion dollar business, but until a few years ago the athletes didn't see a penny of it. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA, the organization that governs college sports, had violated antitrust laws, and athletes gained the right to monetize their appearances and endorsements. This year, for the first time, athletes will receive revenue sharing from NCAA, the result of another lawsuit.After decades of generating billions for everyone but themselves, athletes are finally starting to share in the value they create. So why is this moment being described as a crisis, with new legislation in Congress that would once again restrict what athletes can earn?Today on the show Matt and David talk with Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and former Attorney Advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, about the NCAA and whether this so-called crisis is really an effort to turn back the clock to a time when student athletes had far less bargaining power and influence in the very fields where they compete.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

With its promise to displace jobs and disrupt daily life, AI and large language models have formed a unique market and social bubble: one that nearly everyone hates. Despite little revenue, billions of dollars are promised by hyperscalers like Google and Meta to help build out AI data centers in increasingly arcane financing schemes that are propping up the otherwise meager economy. Today on the show Matt and David invite two guests: Advait Arun, Senior Associate for Capital Markets at the Center for Public Enterprise and author of a recent paper on data centers, Bubble or Nothing; and Sarah Meyers-West, who is the co-executive director of the AI NOW Institute, to discuss the strange place we've found ourselves in. We discuss the state of the AI economy, the complex ways these data centers are financed (including old favorites like credit default swaps), how the bubble might pop, and what the consequences might be. If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

On today's show, David and Matt sit down with Tim Wu, the man who coined the term “net neutrality”, about his new book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity. They discuss how tech platforms went from scrappy innovators, enabled by a robust regulatory state, to the massive, extractive platforms we know today. Wu walks through the early idealism of the internet, the missed warnings about platform power from the likes of Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt, and the moment Silicon Valley embraced monopoly as a business model. Along the way, he connects the dots between Big Tech, rising inequality, and the political risks of letting a few companies control so much of modern life. 

It’s one of the most surprising and least understood stories in American agriculture: the monopoly over the seeds that grow our food. Farmers are facing a “seed squeeze,” where two companies, Bayer and Corteva, control 90% of the seed corn market, driving up prices even as crop profits fall. Matt and David speak with Independent seed producer John Latham and industry veteran Todd Martin about how intellectual property, patents, and corporate consolidation have turned seeds into billion-dollar assets to the point that farmers sometimes destroy perfectly good seed just to survive and ultimately impact your grocery bill.Check out John's testimony from the Senate Hearing on Competition Issues in the Seed & Fertilizer Industries. If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

From Zohran Mamdani in New York City, to Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Democratic candidates are putting populist economic messages at the center of their campaigns. On today’s show, Matt and David break down the dynamics of this week’s elections and share their predictions. Then, they’re joined by Organized Money alum Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project, to preview Wednesday’s Supreme Court arguments on Trump’s tariffs. They discuss whether the justices will allow Trump his unprecedented power over trade policy or, like the lower courts, move to rein in the executive's power.

Today on the show, Matt and David sit down with Sam Levine and Stephanie Nguyen, formerly of the FTC under Lina Khan, to discuss the dark side of customer loyalty programs like frequent flyer miles, corporate discount cards, and ordering apps from chains like Starbucks and McDonalds. Their new paper, The Loyalty Trap: How Loyalty Programs Hook Us with Deals, Hack our Brains, and Hike Our Prices, exposes the lengths these programs go to to get you into their ecosystem in order to harvest your data, exploit it, and manipulate you to spend more, sometimes with surveillance pricing strategies. Together they discuss why these programs have proliferated, why they are so effective, and why they have been so difficult to regulate.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

This week on Organized Money, David and Matt sit down with Sahaj Sharda and David Barclay, co-founders of The Anti-Fraud Company,  a scrappy new startup aiming to turn corporate whistleblowing into a business model. Sharda, a 27-year-old anti-monopolist and author of The College Cartel, and Barkley, a former FTC attorney known for busting healthcare fraud, explain how they’re using data tools, lawsuits, and a solid dose of nerve to tackle the half-trillion dollars in government fraud that drives up prices for everyone. It’s a new approach to turning outrage into action, or, as they put it, “snitching as a service.”If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

Investment in AI infrastructure has exploded over the last few years, with big players like Google, Meta, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Oracle, striking deals involving hundreds of billions of dollars to build out AI data centers. These deals are single-handedly buoying the otherwise-flailing US economy, but where are these billions actually coming from? And why do all these deals seem to involve the same players in increasingly circular arrangements? Even the most optimistic observers are starting to state the obvious: we're in an AI bubble. Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Herb Greenberg of Herb Greenberg's Red Flag Alerts to discuss the hubris of the current moment, how this moment is both alike and different from past bubbles, and how this thing might pop. If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

What happens when Wall Street sinks its teeth into your smile? David and Matt talk with Dr. Jill Tanzi, dentist and founder of the Alliance of Independent Dentists, about the corporate takeover of dentistry. She pulls back the curtain on how corporate consolidation and giant insurers like Delta Dental are reshaping what happens in the chair, from pricing to patient care, and why it should matter to anyone with teeth.  Jill shares what it’s like trying to keep an independent practice afloat and ways dentists and patients can push back. Check out dentistalliance.org to search for independent dentists in your area.  If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

As American farmers struggle under Trump’s tariffs, the Trump Administration is preparing to bail out…Argentinian farmers? Today on the show, a sprawling, international story that you might have missed: how an electoral blow to the market-friendly government in Argentina is causing panic across the financial sector, bringing together forces like The International Monetary Fund, the US Treasury, and hedge funds to save the flailing government of President Javier Milei; an ascendent libertarian icon, now desperate to stabilize his economy.Matt and David discuss the situation with Matías Vernengo, professor of economics and director of the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy, and Rohit Chopra, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They discuss how we got here, why right-leaning American farmers are furious, and the utter weirdness of the situation, including Milei’s talking dead dog. If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

We are at the Antimonopoly Summit  - where David and Matt sit down for some candid conversations with some of the leaders in the field -  Sen. Chris Murphy (D–CT) on the political stakes, Lina Khan on enforcement and where hope still lives. Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) on hearings and state-level power, David Seligman (workers’ rights attorney and candidate for Colorado Attorney General) on how consolidation squeezes workers, and Alex Oshmyansky (CEO, Cost Plus Drugs) on how incumbents block disruptors in the drug supply chain. They take on media consolidation and the Jimmy Kimmel fallout, the Paramount-Warner worries, PBMs and pharma transparency, and why state attorneys general and creators might be the next line of defense.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

What happens when two gamers-turned-lawyers decide to take on one of the biggest monopolies in the video game world? On this episode of Organized Money, David and Matt dig into a David-versus-Goliath story from the world of PC gaming. Their guests, attorneys Will Bucher and Judson Crump — both gamers themselves — are taking on Valve, the company behind Steam, which  which controls nearly all PC game sales and takes a 30% cut from every purchase. Instead of being crushed by the fine print of arbitration, they’ve figured out how to use it against Valve, filing thousands of individual claims and forcing the company to play by its own rules.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

Senator Elizabeth Warren is here! The Massachusetts democrat she sits down with David and Matt to talk about the fights that keep her fired up—from Wall Street and Big Tech to pushing Democrats to get serious about the cost of living. In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss how democrats should respond to Trump's second-term victory, the Google antitrust trial, spar on Fed independence, and much more. According to Warren, housing, healthcare, and antitrust aren’t just policies—they’re positions that reveal who the government and our representatives really work for. It’s a candid, sharp, and fiery conversation—just like Senator Warren herself.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. It helps us keep the lights on!

Google just lost a huge antitrust case—but somehow seems to have walked away the winner. In this emergency episode David and Matt explain how a federal judge ruled that Google is an illegal monopolist, then turned around and let the company keep the very deals that entrench its dominance. From billion-dollar payments to Apple to the future of AI, they dig into what the ruling means, why critics on both the left and right are calling this a huge win for Big Tech and what it tells us about the fight against monopoly power.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. 

The biggest story in football this season isn’t on the field, but in the boardrooms and backrooms of the NFL. In this episode David and Matt dig into the collusion scandal rocking the league—where billionaire owners conspired to block star quarterbacks from getting guaranteed contracts, in cahoots with the NFL Players Association, the union meant to represent player interests.We're joined by the journalist who cracked the story, Pablo Torre, host of Pablo Torre Finds Out, along with Doha Mekki, Former Acting Assistant Attorney General. Together, we try and piece together how how this scandal's collusive DMs, strip club meetings, shady union politics, and brazen conflicts of interest, form a case study in contemporary power, labor, and corruption.If you love Organized Money, support us! Go to Organizedmoney.fm to subscribe to our newsletter, or Organizedmoney.fm/donate to throw us a donation. 

The business of skateboarding has grown from an independent, DIY culture into one almost completely dominated by private equity groups. How did it get gobbled up? In this episode David teams up with former “skate rat” and researcher Daniel Stone of the Center for Economic and Policy Research to expose how private equity has quietly, and sometimes catastrophically, taken over the world of skateboarding. What started as a subversive, counter-cultural movement has become a hunting ground for financial firms snapping up iconic skate and surf brands, only to leave them saddled with debt, stripped of their soul, and disconnected from the local shops and skaters that built them. From the leveraged buyout and hollowing out of World Industries, the collapse of Dwindle Distribution and Enjoi skateboards, and Boardriders’ massive bankruptcy we see how  these firms disconnected iconic brands from their roots, gutted skate teams, and contributed to the decline of local skate shops. This episode is a cautionary tale, showing how even the most rebellious sides of youth culture aren’t safe from Wall Street’s relentless appetite. Check out Daniel's report, No Comply: Private Equity and Skateboarding here.Love Organized Money? Support us! Go to OrganizedMoney.fm to subscribe to our free newsletter, and throw us a donation if you're able. It helps keep the lights on.  

Organized Money is on vacation this week, but we still have a fantastic monopoly story for you. Around the globe, tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease, despite the fact that it's treatable. This episode is about a drug that would otherwise save lives, but is so expensive that many of the people who desperately need it, can't afford it. The reason is because of the ways healthcare companies keep the price of drugs high via patents and loopholes, both here and abroad—and how one man led thousands of people to fight back. This story, which originally ran in 2023, comes from our friends at the podcast An Arm And A Leg, a show about why medical care costs so much, hosted by Dan Weissman. If you like this episode, go check out An Arm And A Leg, and subscribe. 

It's hard to keep track of the number of trade deals, threats, carve-outs and deadlines and random stops and starts in the Trump administration's wild approach to tariffs. To untangle the chaos, Matt and David sit down with trade expert Lori Wallach, Director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project and a senior advisor to the Citizens Trade Campaign.  Lori breaks down how Trump’s "rando" policies have created confusion for businesses, investors, and even trading partners, often serving corporate interests or foreign political drama rather than American workers. From the surprise shutdown of a notorious import loophole to the murky reality of deals and exclusions, they reveal the real impacts on manufacturing, prices, and policy—plus the performative side of trade announcements that keep everyone guessing and frustrated.Love Organized Money? Support us! Go to OrganizedMoney.fm to sign up for updates videos, and more. We're an independent podcast supported entirely by our listeners, so your donations help us keep the lights on. 

Last week, the journalist Sohrab Ahmari broke a story titled The Antitrust War Inside MAGA: Powerful Lobbyists Are Battling Populist Reformers. In it, he reported that the recent $14 billion deal in which Hewlett-Packard acquired its competitor, Juniper Networks, was quietly shepherded along with help from the Justice Department, complete with martini-sipping backroom deals. Two attorneys within the department who objected to the shady procedural maneuvers were reportedly fired.Today on the show, Matt and David bring Ahmari on to unpack the situation, what it could mean for antitrust policy under the second Trump administration, and whether this signals the end of populist influence within the MAGA movement.Love Organized Money? Support us! Go to OrganizedMoney.fm to sign up for updates videos, and more. We're an independent podcast supported entirely by our listeners, so your donations help us keep the lights on. 

In this episode of Organized Money, hosts Matt Stoller and David Dayen are joined by journalist and author Bridget Read to unravel the shadowy world of multi-level marketing (MLM) and pyramid schemes. Drawing from Bridget’s new book,  Little Bosses Everywhere, How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America, they explore how companies like Amway, Herbalife, and Mary Kay built vast empires by selling not just products but the promise of entrepreneurship and financial freedom—when in reality, most participants end up losing money. The conversation reveals MLM’s deep ties to American politics, highlighting how the industry helped shape the modern conservative movement and evade federal regulation, with figures like the DeVos family fueling both business and political influence. From cult-like positive thinking and self-help roots to the exploitation of vulnerable communities, the episode exposes how the allure of “being your own boss” often conceals a cycle of extraction, false hope, and systemic harm that reaches far beyond personal finances—shaping culture, politics, and the American dream itself.Like Organized Money? Support us! Go to organizedmoney.fm/donate and help us keep the lights on. 

Costco is a great place to buy bulk toilet paper, cheap hot dogs, or even a mortgage—but for some customers, their recent Coscto experience has felt a little off, especially when dealing with their vendors. In this episode Matt and David  talk with Steve Hunt, a Costco customer service worker and former Oklahoma City mayoral candidate, about how private equity takeovers of vendors selling everything from water delivery and window blinds, to discounted event tickets through Costco are quietly eroding product quality and customer service. What looks like the ultimate consumer haven is, in fact, a view into how private equity’s cost cutting tactics are degrading everyday services, exploiting Costco’s reputation for trust, and leaving customers and employees stuck in the middle. Check out Steve's substack and his article: New York City: The Extraction Engine, the Extreme Center, and the Hollowing of Oklahoma City or Dasha Nekrasova vs. Woody Guthrie.Like Organized Money? Support us! Go to organizedmoney.fm/donate and help us keep the lights on. 

In this episode, a rare piece of good news in prescription drug pricing. Matt and David speak with Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis Advisors and architect of Ohio’s Medicaid pharmacy overhaul, and Benjamin Jolly, pharmacist and advocate with the American Economic Liberties Project. Together, they unpack how Ohio kicked pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) out of its Medicaid program, saving $140 million in just two years, paying pharmacists fairly, and making it easier for patients to get their medicine.Antonio shares how he uncovered hidden costs and sparked a legislative revolution, while Benjamin explains why this model is spreading to states across the country and the political divide.  If you love Organized Money, support us! Donate at OrganizedMoney.fm

At the height of Trump’s tariff spree, when he kept ratcheting up taxes on Chinese imports, China struck back by withholding an under-discussed but essential resource: rare earth minerals. These elements are crucial to nearly all modern electronics, vehicles, and weaponry, and play a vital role in high-tech manufacturing. The business world quickly sounded the alarm. Some companies, like General Motors, even slowed or stopped production on certain vehicle models due to the supply bottleneck.Today on the show, Matt and David talk with Alex Jacquez, former Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development and Industrial Strategy under President Biden, now Chief of Policy and Advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, about how China gained such a powerful advantage, and why something so important was largely overlooked for so long. If you love Organized Money, support us! Visit OrganizedMoney.fm to donate.

After file-sharing decimated the music industry in the late 1990's, tech platforms, and music publishers spent years finding a profitable solution to the problem of free music. Spotify was the result. For investors and major labels, Spotify was a triumph: it revitalized the business of recorded music, and accommodated a public that had grown used to having instant, on-demand access. But for artists and smaller labels, it has only exacerbated the problem of making a living. Today on the show, Matt and David talk to Liz Pelly, author of the new book Mood Machine: The Rise Of Spotify And The Cost Of The Perfect Playlist, to find out how the dominant platform in music streaming was founded, how its algorithmically driven recommendation system flattens musical taste, and how its "payola-like" activities skirt the regulations that governed terrestrial radio for decades. Support Organized Money by subscribing at OrganizedMoney.fm, it helps keep the show going. 

Zohran Mamdani's triumph in New York City's democratic mayoral primary is sending shockwaves through the political strata: As the populist wing celebrates, establishment Democrats are scrambling to make meaning of his upset, and big-money financiers are holding secret meetings to address "the Zohran situation".On today's episode, Matt and David bring back friend of the show, Zephyr Teachout, to ask how Mamdani did it. Zephyr ran for governor against Cuomo in 2014, and her background as an attorney, professor, and candidate helps us understand what Mamdani's win means for the future of New York City politics, and the party as a whole.  

This week, the film giant Warner Bros. announced plans to split into two separate companies: one for its flagship brand HBO and its growing streaming service, HBO Max; the other for its declining linear TV assets, like CNN and TNT. It’s a sharp reversal—just a few years ago, Warner Bros. merged with Discovery under CEO David Zaslav, forming the very partnership they're now unwinding. Today on the show, Matt and David welcome the editorial director and columnist for The Ankler, Richard Rushfield, to talk through the WB de-merger, the gloomy state of the Hollywood business, and why the industry just can’t seem to get its act together.

All over the country, corporate consolidation of doctor’s offices has exploded in recent years.  Most states have longstanding laws on the books forbidding corporate entities from controlling medical decision-making, but large corporations like United Health have managed to weasel their way in via loopholes. Recently, the state of Oregon passed a new bill that closed the exceptions that made these corporate takeovers possible. Today on the show Matt and Dave talk with Oregon House Majority Leader Representative Ben Bowman, who spearheaded the bill, and Hayden Rooke-Ley, Senior Fellow for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project to discuss how we got here, and how the bill attempts to return medical decision-making to the physicians who actually have a stake in their patient’s wellbeing. You can read more about Rep. Bowman's bill on Matt's newsletter Big.If you love Organized Money, support us! You can donate and help us keep the show going at OrganizedMoney.fm

We’re over thirty episodes deep into Organized Money, and on today’s episode, we’re looking back at some of the topics we’ve covered, and where they stand today. Matt and David discuss recent developments in the Google case, pharmacy benefit manager reform, the legal state of non-competes, tariffs, surveillance pricing, and more—and yes, there is (some) good news.They also dive into Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which proposes cutting Medicaid, banning state-led AI regulation, reforming student loans, slashing taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and subsidizing financial capital. The bill has already passed the House of Representatives but now faces trouble in the Senate. The hosts break down what’s likely to survive the reconciliation process—and what’s likely to be cut.We’re also kicking off a fund drive! If you love Organized Money and want to support us, consider contributing at OrganizedMoney.fm.

Ever wonder why the price of your rent or even a bag of frozen potatoes seems to jump for no clear reason? It could be the result of “surveillance pricing”—where companies use your personal data and powerful algorithms to set prices just for you, often squeezing consumers and renters alike. Matt chats with antitrust lawyer Lee Hepner about the rise of these new forms of price fixing. They dig into the RealPage scandal, where software allegedly helped landlords coordinate rent hikes across millions of apartments, even during a housing crisis, and explain how similar tactics are cropping up everywhere from meatpacking to everyday retail. Lee describes how state and federal lawmakers are scrambling to catch up but warns that this is part of a dangerous trend  towards an economy that is structured by large corporations.

"I was served papers while picking up my children from school." That was the beginning of Arizona real estate broker Courtney Van Kott's shocking six-year legal nightmare to fight a non-compete. As a young mother just starting in real estate, Courtney tells Matt she was pressured to sign a contract requiring her to pay 75% of commissions earned for three years after leaving her team—even for clients she found herself. After moving to a new brokerage, she faced a lawsuit demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars, enduring years of litigation before finally winning her case. Their conversation reveals the devastating personal and industry-wide impacts of non-competes, especially for independent contractors. While the Federal Trade Commission attempted to ban most non-competes nationwide in 2024, that rule remains blocked in court, leaving a patchwork of state laws and ongoing uncertainty for millions of American workers like Courtney.