Organized Money

Google just lost a huge antitrust case—but somehow seems to have walked away the winner. In this emergency episode David and Matt explain how a federal judge ruled that Google is an illegal monopolist, then turned around and let the company keep the very deals that entrench its dominance. From billion-dollar payments to Apple to the future of AI, they dig into what the ruling means, why critics on both the left and right are callin...

The biggest story in football this season isn’t on the field, but in the boardrooms and backrooms of the NFL. 

In this episode David and Matt dig into the collusion scandal rocking the league—where billionaire owners conspired to block star quarterbacks from getting guaranteed contracts, in cahoots with the NFL Players Association, the union meant to represent player interests.

We're joined by the journalist who cracked the stor...

The business of skateboarding has grown from an independent, DIY culture into one almost completely dominated by private equity groups. How did it get gobbled up? In this episode David teams up with former “skate rat” and researcher Daniel Stone of the Center for Economic and Policy Research to expose how private equity has quietly, and sometimes catastrophically, taken over the world of skateboarding. What started as a subversive,...

Organized Money is on vacation this week, but we still have a fantastic monopoly story for you. Around the globe, tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease, despite the fact that it's treatable. This episode is about a drug that would otherwise save lives, but is so expensive that many of the people who desperately need it, can't afford it. The reason is because of the ways healthcare companies keep...

It's hard to keep track of the number of trade deals, threats, carve-outs and deadlines and random stops and starts in the Trump administration's wild approach to tariffs. To untangle the chaos, Matt and David sit down with trade expert Lori Wallach, Director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project and a senior advisor to the Citizens Trade Campaign.  Lori breaks down how Trump’s "rando" poli...

Last week, the journalist Sohrab Ahmari broke a story titled The Antitrust War Inside MAGA: Powerful Lobbyists Are Battling Populist Reformers. In it, he reported that the recent $14 billion deal in which Hewlett-Packard acquired its competitor, Juniper Networks, was quietly shepherded along with help from the Justice Department, complete with martini-sipping backroom deals. Two attorneys within the department who objected to the s...

In this episode of Organized Money, hosts Matt Stoller and David Dayen are joined by journalist and author Bridget Read to unravel the shadowy world of multi-level marketing (MLM) and pyramid schemes. Drawing from Bridget’s new book,  Little Bosses Everywhere, How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America, they explore how companies like Amway, Herbalife, and Mary Kay built vast empires by selling not just products but the promise of entre...

Costco is a great place to buy bulk toilet paper, cheap hot dogs, or even a mortgage—but for some customers, their recent Coscto experience has felt a little off, especially when dealing with their vendors. In this episode Matt and David  talk with Steve Hunt, a Costco customer service worker and former Oklahoma City mayoral candidate, about how private equity takeovers of vendors selling everything from water delivery and window b...

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 ...