Organized Money

In this episode, a rare piece of good news in prescription drug pricing. Matt and David speak with Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis Advisors and architect of Ohio’s Medicaid pharmacy overhaul, and Benjamin Jolly, pharmacist and advocate with the American Economic Liberties Project. Together, they unpack how Ohio kicked pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) out of its Medicaid program, saving $140 million in just two years, paying ph...

At the height of Trump’s tariff spree, when he kept ratcheting up taxes on Chinese imports, China struck back by withholding an under-discussed but essential resource: rare earth minerals. These elements are crucial to nearly all modern electronics, vehicles, and weaponry, and play a vital role in high-tech manufacturing. The business world quickly sounded the alarm. Some companies, like General Motors, even slowed or stopped produ...

After file-sharing decimated the music industry in the late 1990's, tech platforms, and music publishers spent years finding a profitable solution to the problem of free music. Spotify was the result. 

For investors and major labels, Spotify was a triumph: it revitalized the business of recorded music, and accommodated a public that had grown used to having instant, on-demand access. But for artists and smaller labels, it has o...

Zohran Mamdani's triumph in New York City's democratic mayoral primary is sending shockwaves through the political strata: As the populist wing celebrates, establishment Democrats are scrambling to make meaning of his upset, and big-money financiers are holding secret meetings to address "the Zohran situation".

On today's episode, Matt and David bring back friend of the show, Zephyr Teachout, to ask how Mamd...

This week, the film giant Warner Bros. announced plans to split into two separate companies: one for its flagship brand HBO and its growing streaming service, HBO Max; the other for its declining linear TV assets, like CNN and TNT. It’s a sharp reversal—just a few years ago, Warner Bros. merged with Discovery under CEO David Zaslav, forming the very partnership they're now unwinding. Today on the show, Matt and David welcome t...

All over the country, corporate consolidation of doctor’s offices has exploded in recent years.  Most states have longstanding laws on the books forbidding corporate entities from controlling medical decision-making, but large corporations like United Health have managed to weasel their way in via loopholes. Recently, the state of Oregon passed a new bill that closed the exceptions that made these corporate takeovers possible. Toda...

We’re over thirty episodes deep into Organized Money, and on today’s episode, we’re looking back at some of the topics we’ve covered, and where they stand today. Matt and David discuss recent developments in the Google case, pharmacy benefit manager reform, the legal state of non-competes, tariffs, surveillance pricing, and more—and yes, there is (some) good news.

They also dive into Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which proposes cutt...

Ever wonder why the price of your rent or even a bag of frozen potatoes seems to jump for no clear reason? It could be the result of “surveillance pricing”—where companies use your personal data and powerful algorithms to set prices just for you, often squeezing consumers and renters alike. Matt chats with antitrust lawyer Lee Hepner about the rise of these new forms of price fixing. They dig into the RealPage scandal, where softwa...

"I was served papers while picking up my children from school." That was the beginning of Arizona real estate broker Courtney Van Kott's shocking six-year legal nightmare to fight a non-compete. As a young mother just starting in real estate, Courtney tells Matt she was pressured to sign a contract requiring her to pay 75% of commissions earned for three years after leaving her team—even for clients she found herself...

Ever wonder how corporations gained so much power? In this episode, David and Matt explore a pivotal moment in the 1970s when Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell wrote a memo that would reshape American capitalism. Guests David Seligman and Luke Goldstein explain how Powell's legal maneuvering essentially rewrote antitrust rules, enabling corporations to use "vertical restraints" to dominate markets, workers, and cons...

We’re diving back into tariffs! This time, David and Matt chat with Mike Beckham, co-founder and CEO of Simple Modern, to break down what the new U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports really mean for businesses and shoppers. Mike shares his firsthand stories from the trenches of global supply chains and his efforts to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and why that’s way harder than it sounds. He explains how these tariffs could cause ...

What’s the real-world fallout of the newly imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports? Matt and David speak to Molson Hart, someone smack in the middle of the current tariff debate. Molson is an entrepreneur and toy company founder with firsthand experience in global manufacturing. He breaks down the step-by-step journey of a product from design to delivery-and how these tariffs have abruptly halted shipments, risking layoffs in ports...

Today, we go courtside at two landmark tech antitrust trials unfolding in the DC District Court: the Department of Justice’s remedy hearing against Google, and the Federal Trade Commission’s monopolization case targeting Meta (Facebook). David and Matt speak with two lawyers and antitrust experts Laurel Kilgore and Brendan Benedict who are covering the trials. 

The Google case is all about what punishment fits the crime af...

Spurred on by Trump, Covid, and climate change, leaders are taking a more hands-on approach to shaping markets that would be seen as impossible a few years ago—but as our guest today argues, this kind of marketcraft is actually a long American tradition. Today, Matt and David welcome Chris Hughes, one of Facebook's founders, to the show to talk about his new book Marketcrafters. The book demolishes the myth that government and...

Ever wonder what it's like to take on Google with a tiny government team?  In this episode David and Matt are back with part two of their interview with Jonathan Kanter, who until recently led the DOJ's antitrust team.  Kanter doesn't hold back, sharing what really happens when you sue tech giants, meatpackers, and ticket monopolies while working with government resources (read: not much). He talks about the challeng...

Since taking office in January, Trump has issued several executive orders targeting major Democratic-aligned law firms, revoking their security clearances and threatening the government contracts of their clients. These law firms are among the "big law" firms that not only wield a great deal of money and power in Washington but also play a significant role in the political establishments of both parties. In this episode, ...

Why is it that Walmart can sell bananas for less than what an independent grocer pays for it wholesale? In this episode, David and Matt expose how major retailers like Walmart and Dollar Stores use their sheer size to strong-arm suppliers into giving them special deals—while smaller, independent grocers are stuck paying higher prices. They talk to Randy Arceneaux, CEO of Affiliated Foods, and antitrust lawyer Chris Jones about how ...

On March 18th, the White House sent a letter to the two democratic commissioners at the FTC that they had been fired. Clear Supreme Court precedent reinforces that FTC commissioners cannot be fired at-will by the executive. So what happens next? Today on the show Matt and David talk to one of those commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya, about his attempted firing. They discuss the context, consequences, and legal precedent of what's ha...

How did Silicon Valley's ideology go from utopian dreams to self serving power grabs? David and Matt dive into the power dynamics of Big Tech with author, activist, and anti-monopoly advocate Cory Doctorow. They explore how Silicon Valley’s early ideals of openness and innovation gave way to corporate dominance, leading to what Doctorow calls “enshitification”—the systematic decay of platforms as they prioritize profits over u...