New newsletter: AMERICAN SPORTS PLUTOCRACY IS BULLSHIT A brief rant about Mark Walter, the Lakers sale, and the moral problem of US sports law turning professional-sports ownership into a kind of mystical machine for increasing billionaire wealth by billions of dollars. American sports teams are among the most valuable assets in modern capitalism in part because we don’t treat them at all like capitalist businesses. The law raises the ceiling of team valuations by restricting competition while protecting the floor of valuations by collectivizing television revenue and limiting labor flexibility. Then, we allow owners to use the fact of restrictive competition to ransom local governments to pay for their stadiums. Finally, draw up the tax code to let billionaire owners minimize their checks to the IRS by amortizing team valuations. derekthompson.org/p/the-amer…