April 16, 2024
Blog Post Anti-MonopolyCongressional OversightConsumer ProtectionDepartment of JusticeFTCHousingRevolving Door
Meet RealPage’s Revolving-Door Lobbyists
The scandal-plagued software company has hired a trio of Capitol Hill insiders to fend off regulatory scrutiny from Congress.
March 21, 2024
RealPage Enlists Ex-FTC Revolvers From BigLaw Firm Gibson Dunn To Fight Tenant Lawsuits
Facing an existential legal threat, the scandal-plagued software company has hired price-fixing monopolists’ favorite lawyers.
March 08, 2024
Hack WatchNewsletter 2024 ElectionAnti-MonopolyConsumer ProtectionDepartment of JusticeDepartment of TransportationFTCHousing
A Decade-Long Week And SOTU Thoughts
This week’s Hack Watch recaps some economic stories you may have missed, plus our initial reaction to Biden’s big speech.
January 26, 2024
The FTC Ain’t Nothin to Mess With
The FTC has won its lawsuit against Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive infamous for jacking up the price of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 overnight in 2015 and later using his ill-gotten fortune to buy an exclusive Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million. Shkreli is the quintessential corporate ghoul, having already racked up convictions for securities fraud—which resulted in an indefinite ban from the securities industries—and failure to pay $1.26 million in New York state taxes. Now, his price gouging has finally caught up with him, as the FTC successfully argued that he spearheaded an anti-competitive scheme to monopolize the drug. The presiding judge found Shkreli’s conduct to be “egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running, and ultimately dangerous,” issuing a $64.6 million fine and imposing a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.
December 15, 2023
Hack WatchNewsletter Anti-MonopolyDepartment of JusticeEconomic PolicyFTCHousingMedia Accountability
Bidenomics Needs A Corporate Crackdown On Rent-Gougers
The RealPage scandal gives Biden a real opportunity to rally working-class support for his reelection campaign.
December 13, 2023 | RDP Newsletter
Antitrust Roundup: Revolver Strikes Back, March-In Rights & Other News
While former FTC commissioner Noah Phillips defends private equity from antitrust lawsuits, the media attacks current Chair Lina Khan for … doing her job.
August 18, 2023
Kalimah Muhammad Vishal Shankar
Hack WatchNewsletter Anti-MonopolyDepartment of JusticeFTCHack WatchHousingMedia Accountability
Memo to the Media: Stop Quoting RealPage
A company under federal antitrust investigation for helping landlords jack up rents is not a reliable or independent source.
August 02, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Following Failed Hearing, Jim Jordan And Republicans Try New Tacks To Take Down Khan and Kanter
Two weeks ago, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan entered a House Judiciary Committee hearing with a target on her back. In the leadup to the hearing, Republicans readied their trumped-up attacks against Khan and the agency she leads: a barely relevant memo from a conflicted ethics officer, a list of unfounded grievances from bitter former Commissioner Christine Wilson, and absurd defenses of Elon Musk’s lazy privacy practices at Twitter. But Khan emerged unscathed, and by the end, the Republicans had lost all their fire.
July 17, 2023
Lina Khan Unscathed By Conflicted Ethics Officer and Pro-Monopoly Republicans
Rep Jim Jordan and company had already been eyeing Khan for an investigation because she had the audacity to enforce a consent decree that Twitter violated under Elon Musk’s leadership. Then, they eagerly seized on last month’s (conveniently timed) reporting from Bloomberg which published a previously unseen memo from an FTC ethics official and accused Chair Khan of ignoring the official’s recommendation. With that backdrop, the Republicans seemed poised to strike while the iron was hot, a culmination of their years-long project to undermine Khan’s leadership and reputation. The result was … much different. Thanks to some sleuthing on our part and the bipartisan support for taking on tech monopolies, yesterday’s hearing was less a damning inquisition and more a victory lap for Khan’s rejuvenation of the FTC.
July 17, 2023 | The American Prospect
The Climate Denialist Think Tank That Might Produce The Next FTC Commissioner
It turns out that radical ideology IS allowed at the FTC.
July 13, 2023
RELEASE: Via Baseless Attacks On Khan, House Republicans Continue to Serve their Monopolist Funders
“Today’s hearing further proved that Republican’s attacks on Lina Khan and her leadership are blatant attempts to weaken antitrust enforcement to the benefit of the corporations that fund the Republican Party. Members, including Jim Jordan, focused on baseless allegations in an attempt to delegitimize the work the FTC is doing to crack down on anti-competitive and harmful practices that monopolistic companies use to amass economic power and squeeze profits out of consumers and workers.”
July 11, 2023
Revolving Door Project Sends Chair Khan Letter on FTC Ethics
In advance of the House Judiciary Committee holding a hearing on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. ET on “Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission,” Revolving Door Project has sent a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan calling on her to take on the FTC’s considerable internal revolving door challenges.
July 05, 2023 | The American Prospect
Lina Khan Haters Took A Premature Victory Lap
It turns out that the ethics official who recommended that Khan recuse herself from a case involving Meta is an owner of Meta stock. This ethics judgment was music to the ears of the media organizations, Republicans, and antitrust hacks who have been attacking Lina Khan throughout her leadership. Beyond being wrong and selective in singling out FTC officials for ethics concerns, the problem with Pankey’s opinion is deeply ironic. Pankey herself has a legitimate conflict of interest in relation to Meta.
June 30, 2023
RDP Asks FTC IG To Investigate Ethics Officer Who Pushed Khan To Recuse While Owning Meta Stock
The ethics officer who recommended Lina Khan recuse herself from the Meta/Within case owns between $15k and $50k in Meta stock.
June 29, 2023
RDP Calls On Microsoft/Activision Judge Who Disclosed Son's Employment At Microsoft To Recuse
The Revolving Door Project sent a letter to Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who is presiding over the FTC’s challenge of the Microsoft/Activision merger, after Judge Corley disclosed that her son is an employee of Microsoft but did not recuse. This relationship may violate the Code of Conduct for US Judges.