Stacy Mitchell

1. Amazon has built powerful pricing algorithms that have learned how to steer prices upward — not just on Amazon, but across the web. I have a new piece on how these algorithms work, and how they help sustain Amazon’s monopoly.

“I think Americans feel like the corporate class would feed us sawdust if they could and charge a premium." Private equity is coming for local restaurants. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/d...

We need a RICO act for corporate crime. Dollar General routinely overcharges customers. In NY, it's paying $1.9M after it failed 43% of price inspections & overcharged on 14% of items. Many states have found the same. But it keeps happening, because the fines are too small. ag.ny.gov/press-releas...

If the states succeed in breaking up Live Nation, it could stop or reverse the decline of independent music clubs, which are essential to bands just starting out. "Independents 'are the ones who give us our first shows. They’re the ones who work with us when we can draw 100 people,' he said."

I love this video. Tribal nations across the country are building their own broadband networks, gaining control over infrastructure that's essential to their communities. It's been such an honor for ILSR to help lead dozens of these tribal broadband bootcamps over the last five years.

The FTC and 12 states are suing to stop the playground maker Power Play from rolling up yet another rival. The case draws on the 2023 Khan/Kanter merger guidelines, which call for scrutinizing the cumulative effects of serial acquisitions.

With Meta shutting down No Kings, Ellison blocking TikTok ads for a documentary on Elon, Amazon supplying tech for ICE.... It's a good time to remember that this story has played out before.

"The rapid increase in state antitrust lawsuits has frustrated business executives... Uncertainty over whether and when states will intervene is acting as an invisible tax on dealmaking..." Good.

1. In Phoenix, we teamed up with Local First Arizona to bring independent business owners together with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes @azagmayes.bsky.social to talk about how corporate concentration is destroying their industries — and what states should do about it.

1. In Phoenix, we teamed up with Local First Arizona to bring independent business owners together with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes @azagmayes.bsky.social to talk about how corporate concentration is destroying their industries — and what states should do about it.

One reason prices are soaring: Amazon uses at least 3 different price-fixing tactics to compel competing retailers to raise their prices. How is that possible? This smart 15-minute Business Insider video explains, drawing on evidence uncovered ahead of Amazon's upcoming antitrust trials.

We're going to see more bankruptcies. We have a dangerous bubble, a business model that doesn't pencil, and a few giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta that are using massive excess profits from their monopoly businesses to fund dominance in AI.

The real threat from AI isn’t the technology. It’s the atrophying of government over decades: practiced helplessness, subservience to corporations, unwillingness to prosecute wealthy criminals, and a fear of making policy that has consequences. A crisis can force a shift. That needs to happen now.

One of many reasons to want local, independently owned grocery stores to survive and thrive: sometimes they host local bands in the produce department. You don’t see that at Kroger.

"The great risk for the Democratic Party right now is to fail to reckon with the much larger and more powerful issue that affordability candidates are tapping into — and to end up disappointing voters once again." — @superwuster.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/o...

OpenAI models are attacking websites and taking anything they can out of them because that is the business model of the company. prospect.org?p=145474

How did FDR weave together a coalition to fight concentrated economic power? A clip from "FESTIVAL with Pete Davis"—in which The Institute for Local Self Reliance's @stacyfmitchell.bsky.social shares how FDR brought together farmers, workers, and consumers to end the first Gilded Age.

A big grocery chain closes a store — then blocks another grocer from moving in. It’s legal in many places, but cities and states are starting to act. Join us Sept. 24 for an event on how to find these “restrictive covenants” and ban them. RSVP:

We're partnering with Local First Arizona, a powerful network of 3,000 small businesses, for a event on how to rollback corporate consolidation. With Attorney General @krismayes.bsky.social in Phoenix on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd. Join us!

I have a new rant up at Pressing Issues about David Ellison, legal fixer Makan Delrahim, and other Paramount mouthpieces who are speed-running through the four stages of greedy corporate grief: abandonment, astroturf, antisemitism and assholery. They are, as the kids say, crashing out.

"The ultimate solution is getting rid of private utilities altogether and putting utilities under public ownership." Yes! Great explainer from @rbreich.bsky.social. ILSR is supporting grassroots campaigns for public ownership of electricity systems across the country: ilsr.org/energy/publi...

Amazon's monopoly power and extraction machine have grown so much worse in the 3 years since the FTC and 17 states filed a major monopolization lawsuit against the company, writes @ronmknox.bsky.social. Trial is scheduled for March.

Big thanks to Pete Davis for having me on his new podcast Festival for a fun conversation about how workers, small businesses, and consumers have been in coalition in the past to defeat corporate giants — and how they can be in coalition again.

Lovely time away, lots of hiking. And also very glad to be back.

I live in one of the areas affected by this bullshit. We have a landline because of a lack of cell service. Our internet is essentially dial up speeds. I can not apply for many healthcare WFH positions because sat/nazinet does not meet security requirements.