INTERVIEWS
ILSR | Jan. 23, 2019
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ILSR co-director Stacy Mitchell appeared Chris Hayes’ podcast, Why Is This Happening?. Hayes, the host of MSNBC’s nightly All In with Chris Hayes, uses his one-hour weekly podcast to dig deeper into news and political topics with expert guests.
On this episode, Stacy and Chris discuss why Amazon’s monopoly power is a policy failure and why it’ll take more than a consumer boycott to change things. They also talk about the backlash against the corporation’s bid to move to New York and Virginia with huge public subsidies, and even cover some other favorite ILSR topics, such as North Dakota’s decision to ban chain pharmacies.
Listen to the full episode here, or on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
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NEWS STORIES WE'RE FOLLOWING
- Congress gave the Federal Trade Commission extraordinary powers to take on abusive corporations. It’s time to compel the agency to use them, writes Sandeep Vaheesan of the Open Markets Institute.
- If you're an independent office products dealer, there are just two wholesalers you can work with. Earlier this week, the FTC allowed Staples to buy one of them in a 3-2 decision. The two opposing commissioners, Chopra and Slaughter, issued compelling dissents that urge new thinking in antitrust enforcement.
- Walmart and other big-box retailers are pushing their "dark store" tax theory in Kansas City, where they've filed suit to slash the assessed valuations of dozens of their stores.
- A reminder from Maine of the economic ripple effects of buying local.
- The perks of independents. A local pharmacist in Tallahassee, TN worked with federal employees over the course of the shutdown to offer them lower prices on prescription drugs. And local businesses in Alexandria, Virginia, chipped in to help federal workers during the shutdown, too.
- An investigation in Ohio found that, in its role as a Prescription Benefit Manager, CVS paid its own stores higher rates than those of its competitors. Meanwhile, a state lawmaker in Pennsylvania is seeking stronger regulation of PBMs.
- Meanwhile, new evidence shows independent pharmacists provide their customers with better and cheaper care than chains do.
- Oklahoma's first locally owned and newly chartered bank in a decade opened this month in Oklahoma City.
- It's virtually impossible to use the internet and not encounter something hosted on Amazon Web Services. One writer tried living Amazon-free for a week, highlighting the limitations of individual consumer power, and the need for broad public policy remedies.
- The Pentagon is investigating ties between its own employees and Amazon's as it prepares to award its massive "JEDI" contract, almost guaranteed to go to Amazon.
- During a bruising hearing before the New York City Council yesterday, and facing a roomful of protesters, Amazon officials began to say that, if New Yorkers don't want Amazon, Amazon may not want New York either.
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