FTC

FTC Chair Lina Khan has explicitly called for more resources to investigate oil and gas mergers, as current funding and staffing levels are forcing the agency to “make difficult decisions” on how to pursue enforcement in oil and gas markets. How many more anti-competitive business practices could the agency unveil with more time and funding?

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission took enforcement action against Invitation Homes, the country’s largest single-family home landlord. It’s an action that not only identifies corporate malfeasance as a key source of the sky-high rent prices tenants are facing, but one that also sends a warning shot to other corporate landlords to quit using such practices – with the potential larger impact of lowering rental prices.

On Lina Khan’s 60 Minutes interview with CBS’s Lesley Stahl, the FTC Chair told the nation about the agency’s many successes during the Biden administration. They discussed successful FTC’s actions to bring down inhaler, insulin and other drug costs, pending lawsuits against Amazon and other Big Tech giants, and Khan’s chilling effect on corporate willingness to pursue anti-competitive mergers. While Stahl espoused corporate America’s ‘fear’ of Khan’s leadership, the FTC Chair proudly stood by the agency’s actions to protect Americans from corporate monopolies.

The Hatch-Waxman Act, despite its intentions, has become a monopoly-extending machine that prioritizes pharmaceutical profits over public health. A 40th birthday is a good chance for anyone to rethink where their life is headed — and major legislation is no exception.

To assess where Harris lands on anti-monopoly issues, we can take a look at what she has been saying on the campaign trail and in the White House. Harris’ embrace of messaging that vilifies corporations for exploiting Americans is promising sign that she’ll take up the anti-monopoly mantle.

Matt Yglesias has joined the ranks of critics misrepresenting Lina Khan and the FTC’s record during the Biden administration.

The scandal-plagued software company has hired a trio of Capitol Hill insiders to fend off regulatory scrutiny from Congress.

Facing an existential legal threat, the scandal-plagued software company has hired price-fixing monopolists’ favorite lawyers.

This week’s Hack Watch recaps some economic stories you may have missed, plus our initial reaction to Biden’s big speech.

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. 

The RealPage scandal gives Biden a real opportunity to rally working-class support for his reelection campaign.

While former FTC commissioner Noah Phillips defends private equity from antitrust lawsuits, the media attacks current Chair Lina Khan for … doing her job.

A company under federal antitrust investigation for helping landlords jack up rents is not a reliable or independent source.

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.