Stacy Mitchell

Working to decentralize economic power. Antimonopoly. Pro-local. Co-Exec Director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ILSR.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

1. For at least 10 years, Pepsi has conspired with Walmart to force up grocery prices. That’s the shocking evidence made public today in an unsealed FTC lawsuit. The suit was dropped in May by @AFergusonFTC just before it was to be un-redacted. We went to court to get it unsealed & won.

[John Cassidy @JohnCassidy]

First it was MIT and McKinsey. Now Bain finds that returns to corporate AI investments are disappointing.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Part of the problem with allowing the surplus from our collective work and endeavors to be captured by a handful of monopolists is that you get decisions about where to invest that surplus that make little sense.

[Matthew B @boes_]

The U.S. is now spending more on data center construction than on public transportation infrastructure, according to new Census Bureau figures out today (https://t.co/2SonuBrsvY)

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

https://t.co/oKzzup11Dh

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

More than one-third of warehouse workers in the U.S. are employed by Amazon. That's a staggering degree of dominance. What does that concentrated power lead to? "In the national sample, job quality and worker well-being are lower in warehouses engaged in e-commerce than in traditional warehouses... The negative effects are most pronounced at Amazon..."

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

https://t.co/RIWJGcnVrG

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Independent businesses compete with one another. And they also help one another when disaster strikes. “Independent hardware stores and lumberyards are more than businesses. They are part of the fabric of their communities," Gardiner said.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Graham Platner signs keep sprouting up on lawns here in Maine. What a lot of the national political class seems not to grasp is how grave the mood among voters is. People feel we're in a profound crisis, that the existing Democratic Party is not up to the task, and everything else pales.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Graham Platner signs keep sprouting up on lawns here in Maine. What a lot of the national political class seems not to grasp is how grave the mood among voters is. People feel we're in a profound crisis, that the existing Democratic Party is not up to the task, and everything else pales.

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

The dominant egg producers took in around $15 billion in windfall profits over ~3 years and only abruptly stopped extorting the public when the Trump administration (1) bribed them with $1+ billion dollars in extra subsidies, and (2) threatened them with an antitrust lawsuit. But sure, egg prices are down because Big Egg “stopped being greedy.”

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Read more here: https://t.co/Xp3L0AJeuV

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

Democrats are talking about the soaring electricity prices and a broken utility system — but so far none have had the guts to attack the underlying issue. "No politicians or candidates yet have talked about breaking up the monopolies themselves," writes @johnffarrell in @Capitol_Forum

[Claire Kelloway @clairekelloway]

In the @nytopinion today with @sandeepvaheesan making the case for genuine antitrust action in the food system, not just rhetoric. https://t.co/oCR2JUXHP9

[ron knox @ronmknox]

ILSR's statement is here --> https://t.co/YHJAamUOPy

[ron knox @ronmknox]

The California Assembly just passed the COMPETE Act, moving one major step closer to establishing a ban on monopolization in the state with the world's fourth-largest economy and the home of Big Tech. An incredible achievement. Antimonopoly is alive and well in the states.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

@gielow_harold @eyebright22 You should take a look at the third component of our framework. Comments welcome.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

1. The data center boom isn’t a neutral response to public need. It’s a speculative race by Amazon, Google, Meta & Microsoft to consolidate control over AI and extend their monopoly power — while shifting huge costs onto the rest of us.

Here's ILSR's guide to what we need to do.

[Micah Lasher @MicahLasher]

We used to have a powerful antitrust law on the books called the Robinson-Patman Act to protect small businesses, but during the Reagan era of deregulation it became a dead letter.

Fast forward to today and big box stores now make up 60% of the grocery market. Independent grocers are being forced to close everywhere we look. Our neighborhoods are worse off, and so are consumers, who have fewer choices and less market power. My legislation would put the Robinson-Patman Act on the books as a state law to level the playing field and protect competition.

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

6. Finally, we need a different vision for digital infrastructure: distributed and smaller-scale computing facilities, public and cooperative models, and policies that reduce dependence on a handful of giant firms. Read our policy guide here: https://t.co/L9HRzXWc31

[Stacy Mitchell @stacyfmitchell]

5. Second: break the monopoly power driving this reckless race. This means structural separations to stop dominant firms from controlling every part of the AI stack, barring acquisitions by Big Tech, public-interest regulation of AI, and restructuring our monopoly utility system.