Share this page!

Matt Stoller Profile picture
Twitter logo
2 Nov, 4 tweets, 1 min read
When Simon & Schuster announced that it was up for sale in March 2020, its CEO wrote to one of its best- selling authors: “I’m pretty sure that the Department of Justice wouldn’t allow Penguin Random House to buy us, but that’s assuming we still have a Department of Justice.” 🤣
Spicy complaint form DOJ against Penguin/Random House buying Simon and Schuster. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
It is interesting that this DOJ challenge is going after a merger that would reduce the market from 5 to 4 competitors.
While I think this merger should be blocked, I have to give credit to quality trolling of the antitrust agencies. Publishers are legitimately mad that DOJ helped Amazon become a monopoly.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Matt Stoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @matthewstoller

Matt Stoller Profile picture
4 Nov
Why don't we have cheap rapid covid tests? Tim Stenzel, the FDA employee in charge of approving them, approved two firms to make them. He had worked at both. Then he blocked additional ones from coming on the market. propublica.org/article/heres-… ImageImage
FDA official Tim Stenzel explicitly advocated a rapid covid testing monopoly in his approach. Why? Efficiency!

Except that Europe has 39 tests and they are cheap and everywhere. We have expensive tests and they are in shortage. Image
This story about rapid covid testing came from my organization @econliberties. We wrote a letter two months ago asking why Stenzel is allowed to make these kinds of decisions. At this point the FDA needs radical reform to end its pro-monopoly posture. documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Read 6 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
3 Nov
Liberals don't get it. The Pandemic and Covid are different things. Covid is a disease. The Pandemic is a politically constructed determination. We are not in a 'flu pandemic' because we have decided politically that the flu is something we have to deal with in a normal society.
Covid makes you sick. The Pandemic is a rationale for making lots of public policy decisions about who can travel, work, get educated, sell medicine, and so forth. Covid can decline as The Pandemic continues, and vice versa.
Biden has not handled the Pandemic well because he has empowered media hungry bureaucrats like Fauci to make *political choices* when the country has decided it prefers normalcy to endless panic and control.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
2 Nov
I have views on what Democrats are doing wrong politically, but the basic issue is that we are out of touch. I've never seen such wildly pro-labor sentiment in America in in my lifetime, but the Democratic governing class has no connection to the working class.
When Democrats admire a working class icon as much as they admire Anthony Fauci, they will no longer be out of touch. Screw that. When Democrats can *name* a working class icon...
Structurally the Democrats rely for their political machinery on nonprofits, and that's mostly untethered from any feedback loop except what foundation and corporate executives think. I don't really know how to fix any of this.
Read 10 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
2 Nov
A lot of the opposition to stronger antitrust enforcement is based on the idiotic notion that most business leaders know what they are doing when they try to monopolize a new area.
It's like let's say that antitrust enforcers had won the case against the AT&T-Time Warner merger. What would have happened is that DOJ would have saved AT&T shareholders and Time Warner employees from an immensely stupid deal.
If we had enforced predatory pricing law Softbank would not have been able to waste billions of dollars of Saudi money on WeWork. I'm not saying that's the point of the law, but the idea that too much enforcement is inefficient is likely the opposite of the truth.
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
1 Nov
The Biden administration pushed to allow the sale of over the counter hearing aids. The Medicare hearing expansion would ban Medicare from paying for over the counter hearing aids. 🤔mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
This kind of pro-monopoly bullshit is why I'm tired of progressive politics. 'We need to expand coverage of hearing in Medicare' sounds awesome but then you realize it's about helping monopoly providers of overpriced hearing aids by excluding competitors. mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
It's quite possible to fix the legislation so that the hearing aid cartel can't effectively undo what the Biden executive order just did re: hearing aids. mattstoller.substack.com/p/hearing-aid-…
Read 4 tweets
Matt Stoller Profile picture
29 Oct
1. For at least five years, Facebook has been mired in significant public scandal. But Mark Zuckerberg simply doesn't care. Why? The answer is, he knows it doesn't matter, because the rule of law doesn't apply to the powerful. mattstoller.substack.com/p/enough-is-en…
2. Zuckerberg has heard intense criticism since he started Facebook at Harvard. And while criticism would seem shameful to a normal person, to him, the scandals, far from a problem, are why he won. He is worth $100 billion bc he grabbed whatever he could, and others didn't.
3. The legal problems, the settlements for deception with the Federal Trade Commission, the $5B fine for violating it, foreign investigations, and the antitrust suit... to him it's noise. He's a builder, and builders build. mattstoller.substack.com/p/enough-is-en…
Read 22 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @matthewstoller has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @matthewstoller!

Read all threads by @matthewstoller

:(