Stacy Mitchell

1. Boy, Amazon is in a heap of trouble. Evidence made public today by California AG @AGRobBonta shows blatant price fixing. And there are so many examples. Here's Amazon scheming with a pet food supplier to get Chewy to raise its prices.

CVS says it's going to break itself up. After more than a decade of calls to separate its retail pharmacies from its PBM/insurance business, that's big news. But here's the thing: CVS's breakup has two major loopholes. Both are designed to preserve its power. First, CVS Health would keep its specialty pharmacy business. These pharmacies dispense expensive, often complex medications. They account for 40+% of the pharmacy market by revenue. They're a major site of anticompetitive practices that squeeze independent pharmacies. Second, CVS says the ties between the two new companies will be "preserved in commercial agreements." In other words, separate ownership, but keep the arrangements that create conflicts of interest and enable anticompetitive practices. A real (government-led) breakup would sever those ties. CVS didn't arrive here all on its own. Tennessee and Arkansas passed laws forcing a breakup of vertically integrated pharmacy giants like CVS. CVS is fighting the laws in court. Senators Warren and Hawley have a federal bill. Antitrust scrutiny has grown, both at the state level and when @linamkhan ran the FTC. Trying to sidestep these efforts is one motivation here. But CVS also has business reasons to jettison its struggling retail stores. Amazon's growing pharmacy business is one. The perils of running an overbuilt retail chain when you haven't invested in workers is another. Anyone who's been inside a CVS lately knows these stores suck. For more than a decade, I've been working with independent pharmacies and my colleagues here at @ilsr to expose the anticompetitive structures and practices that have driven so many local pharmacies out of business, and calling for a breakup of CVS. But CVS shouldn't get to decide what counts as an effective breakup. Policymakers need to ensure that it actually dismantles its power.

The Democratic wins in Kansas, Texas, and elsewhere suggest that economic populism — a politics of that sees economic power as the one fight — has the potential to reorganize the country's political map.

Hard to imagine a more populist message from voters. There were 41 local ballot measures on data centers across 10 states yesterday. Early returns show voters overwhelmingly rejecting data-center development and approving restrictions, often by landslide margins.

Another big deal for getting money out of politics: Michigan voters have — by 81%! — approved a ban on campaign contributions from electric and gas utilities. Companies whose profits depend on government decisions will no longer be able to bankroll the politicians making them.

We've largely forgotten that states define what corporations can do. Yesterday, Montana voters overwhelmingly stripped corporations of the power to spend money influencing elections. Hawaii did the same in May. Both face court fights. Our nascent citizen muscle is coming to life.

If we want faster antitrust, we need enforcers to read the @TheProspect. This reporting powerhouse is always way ahead of the game. I believe this may have been the first national expose on Dollar General's overcharging way back in January 2024.