There is a blinking red light at the heart of the proposed Paramount-Warner Brothers merger. And it's just one of the many reasons workers will likely lose their jobs if the merger goes through. From this week's episode with @atg.wa.gov Nick Brown—one of 12 state AGs suing to block the merger.

Corporate mergers always promise efficiency, but too often, they mean less competition, fewer choices, and more power at the top. @atg.wa.gov joins Nick & Goldy this week to break down why states are fighting the Paramount–WBD merger as the DOJ abandons antitrust enforcement. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4pXHhWw

When major players in an industry merge, prices go up, wages go down, consumer choice decreases, and slows innovation. That's why antitrust cases like the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger are so critical. This week, @atg.wa.gov joins us to talk about that case and more.

The Trump administration is sending tariff refunds, including $2.2 billion to Apple and $600 million to Amazon. But American consumers? $0. Once again, corporations get billions to line their pockets while Americans pay the price.

The affordability crisis is a symptom of a deeper imbalance in who holds power in our economy. 🎧⬇️ Listen to @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social on @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social explain why a winning economic agenda must give working people more control over their jobs, their time, and their futures.

Pitchfork Economics@pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · last wk.

Democracy can’t just survive. It has to deliver. @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy this week to talk about @rooseveltinstitute.org's Good Life Agenda, public power, and why people lose trust when government feels disconnected from everyday life. Listen: bit.ly/Ewilkins

Suffice it to say, @goldy.horsesass.org is a fan of the Good Life Agenda from @rooseveltinstitute.org . From last week's episode with their President and CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social.

The fundamental assumptions of neoliberal economics are crumbling around us. The question isn't whether change is coming, it's what that change looks. @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social joined Nick and Goldy to talk about the @rooseveltinstitute.org's Good Life Agenda, their answer to that question.

Democracy can’t just survive. It has to deliver. @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social joins Nick & Goldy this week to talk about @rooseveltinstitute.org's Good Life Agenda, public power, and why people lose trust when government feels disconnected from everyday life. Listen: bit.ly/Ewilkins

"I have no control over my life". @rooseveltinstitute.org's Elizabeth Wilkins joins us this week to talk about their Good Life Agenda, and why "affordability" undersells what people are actually asking for. It's not just prices. It's wages. It's power. It's self determination.

CEOs are selling AI as a historic productivity boom—even as they warn it could eliminate jobs. But businesses invest when workers have higher incomes and consumer demand is strong. So we're revisiting our conversation with Preston Mui on why productivity is built through policy. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4yzym1k

The next economic downturn hasn't even arrived, and the austerity playbook is already written. Cut public investment. Shrink government. Tell people there's no alternative. We've heard this story before, which is why this week we're resharing our conversation with Clara Mattei. 🎧 bit.ly/4gyaRiG

Streaming costs more. Shows disappear. Services get worse. Then the companies responsible say they need to get even bigger to “compete.” That’s the Paramount-Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger in a nutshell: fewer choices, higher prices, worse products — sold as efficiency.

12 states challenge Paramount's takeover of Warner, say merger would 'extinguish competition'

Twelve states are suing to block Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. They argued in a lawsuit Monday that the $81 billion merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to few...

apnews.com

Some economics is complicated. This isn’t. Hungry kids have a harder time learning, reading, doing math, and staying healthy. So when politicians cut food assistance and threaten school meals, they are not saving money. They are creating future harm. Feed the damn kids. ampr.gs/3SJsqm4

Congressional Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill Threatens Access to Free School Meals

Students across the country could lose access to free school meals, forcing the typical family with two children to spend $1,900 to $2,200 more per year for school meals.

americanprogress.org

The settlement was $3.3 million and 53 million eggs. One major egg producer’s quarterly profits reportedly jumped from $92M to $318M while families were paying record prices. That’s not accountability. Seems like that’s just the cost of doing business. 👀 https://bit.ly/3RusLIV

Egg producers will pay $3.3M and donate 53 million eggs to settle price-fixing claims

The U.S. Justice Department and 17 states have reached settlement agreements with three major egg producers over allegations of that the companies illegally colluded in a multiyear scheme to raises pr...

apnews.com

This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with @pkrugman.bsky.social about one of the myths that built trickle-down economics: that bad economic ideas disappear when they fail. They don’t. They get rebranded, recycled, and shoved back into the policy debate. 🎧: https://bit.ly/3T4ns3i

Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Zombie Economics (with Paul Krugman) - Pitchfork Economics

This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that bad economic ideas die once the evidence proves them wrong. They don’t. They come back a...

bit.ly

SCOTUS made it easier for presidents to fire the people policing corporate power. @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social warned about this: we obsess over government “overreach,” but ignore under-reach — when government is too captured to fight for people, corporate power fills the vacuum. bit.ly/44I102x

More than 361,000 workers are getting a raise this summer because Alaska, Oregon, and D.C. are raising their minimum wages. That’s $221M+ in higher earnings going to workers, families, and circulating through local economies.

Seventeen states and localities are increasing their minimum wage this July

On July 1, the minimum wage will increase in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C.—lifting wages for more than 361,000 workers and collectively raising their earnings by more than $221 million (see Fig...

epi.org

In 2014, Nick Hanauer wrote a now-famous article in Politico warning his fellow plutocrats that the pitchforks were coming. He was right. The only question is what comes next.

Is the intense focus on AI job loss classist? If losing 5–15 million jobs to AI is a crisis, where's the crisis for the 7.5 million people unemployed today? From our conversation with @kedseconomist.com

Is universal childcare the next big middle-out policy @kedseconomist.com explains, "this would be... one of the largest investments the federal government has ever made in communities across the U.S. and every community would benefit from it."

Every episode, we ask our guests what they would do if they could waive a magic wand. @Keds_economist answer: 1. Major labor reform immediately 2. Major tax reform — including the $2.3 trillion the government refunds through coupons in the tax system What do you think?

@Keds_Economist has an answer to what a strong policy solution to AI job loss should look like. It centers on three things: 1. Fix short-term unemployment 2. Establish long-term unemployment 3. Make working-class jobs suck less What do you think?

AI job loss is real. The question is whether we respond as if it’s inevitable destruction or as a policy problem we know how to solve. @kedseconomist.com joins Nick & Paul to explain what the pandemic recovery can teach us about AI, workers, and the future of work. 🎧 Listen: https://bit.ly/4fRdD27

Economist @kedseconomist.com isn't buying UBI as a solution for AI job loss. $20,000 a year won't solve anyone's problems if they can't find work. But it will serve as cover for the AI elite as they displace millions of workers. What do you think? Is UBI part of the answer?

@sanders.senate.gov' idea to give the public a stake in AI isn't crazy. AI is monetizing humanity's intellectual property. If we don't act, all the value AI creates will flow to a handful of plutocrats. We should give the public, who created the resource, an ownership stake in the profits.

AI doomsdayers want us to believe mass job loss would be unprecedented. @kedseconomist.com has a sharp reminder: We already saw the U.S. economy lose 22.5 million jobs in five weeks at the start of the pandemic. What mattered wasn’t inevitability. It was the policy response. New episode tomorrow!

Nick's fix for Social Security funding: Cut tax rate in half: 12.4% to 6.2%. Tax all forms of income, including capital gains and dividends, with no cap. Social Security is fully funded. 95% of Americans get a 6% raise. They the spend that money driving growth and hiring. What do you think?

Yes! Thank you for the recommendation! One of our goals is to help give you the language to push back on bad economic ideas and bad-faith narratives.

@vatrueandblue.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Guys gotta subscribe to Pitchfork Econ pod it is great stuff And BTW gives you good talking points to bring up about how the current system being taught to everybody including students is not really a viable long term Econ strategy Unless you are filthy rich - in that you love it

What if the economic assumptions shaping our politics have been backward all along? @monicapotts.bsky.social talks with @nickhanauer.bsky.social about Market Humanism: markets built to serve people, not the other way around. ⬇️ newrepublic.com/article/2115...

What if Everything We Know About the Economy Is Dead Wrong?

Entrepreneur and anti-inequality warrior Nick Hanauer has a vision of a fairer, more humanist system. All it takes to get there is to throw out everything that came before it.

newrepublic.com

oldie but goodie. Thanks @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social and @nickhanauer.bsky.social cc: @joshbivens-econ.bsky.social

Pitchfork Economics@pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This week, we’re revisiting a conversation from our archive that feels newly relevant: wage stagnation was not an accident, and it is not irreversible. @larrymishel.bsky.social and @joshbivens-econ.bsky.social of @epi.org explain how policy choices have weakened worker power. 🎧 ➡️ bit.ly/4okRhYT