Zephyr Teachout
@ZephyrTeachout
Fordham Law Professor. Anti-monopolist. Everybody else is smarter than you think. Books: Corruption in America, Break ‘em Up
I really have to take summer break from this website, but the last thing I want to say is that this--the Mamdani campaign, the vision for the city--is about democracy. Everyone wants to focus on affordability, and that's not wrong, but it's only half. Read his speech:
This op-ed speaks to a huge flaw in capitalism—what we're sold as "free market economics" is actually our food system being rigged in favor of large corporations. Consumers and small businesses pay the price in the form of food deserts and high prices. We need new solutions.
Mamdani's grocery campaign inspired me to write this. New York City can stop big chain stores and big suppliers from distorting grocery markets. nytimes.com/2025/07/21/opi…
@ZephyrTeachout's call for banning price discrim, policing price gouging, barring exclusive contracts, & investing in public inf in next CH + small-scale large-impact revisions of CPL protecting workers & small biz can bring affordability to more NYers nytimes.com/2025/07/21/opi…
“In other words, there is no real policy answer to ‘AI is going to take our jobs,’ because what that phrase really means is ‘America is treating working people like shit.’” Technology isn’t an excuse for refusing to talk about political economy. Necessary read below.
1. The discussion over 'AI taking all the jobs' has been bothering me for awhile. In 2013, Jeff Bezos was asked about bookselling. "Amazon isn't happening to book selling, the future is happening to book selling." Blaming abstract forces is what monopolists ALWAYS do.
“Americans deserve to know why this FTC greenlit a mega merger on unprecedented terms that benefit Elon Musk. The public should learn why the FTC dismissed a settlement over a Big Oil merger that had evidence an executive had coordinated with foreign countries to jack up the…
My statement on the DC Circuit stay.
This isn’t speculation — @Delta bragged about it to investors. Great to see @RubenGallego @SenBlumenthal @MarkWarner demanding answers.
Lina Khan: "The holy grail for companies for a long time has been the ability to charge each person what their willingness to pay is. If you're really hungry for lunch, maybe they'll charge you 10 bucks for a burger, but if you're not that hungry, maybe they'll charge you three…
Price discrimination laws like Robinson Patman do not forbid pricing differences based on operational efficiency, so does not touch actual economies of scale. Its different prices based on clout/market power that are forbidden. Understandable misunderstanding by many.
Isn't that more a product of an economy of scale? Any buyer gets better pricing when ordering in larger quantities. Economy of scale is a good thing.
The state by state effort to ban surveillance pricing is catching steam just in time. We need to stop this before it becomes naturalized as just a fact of corporate behavior.
"Fair pricing should not be a privilege, it should be a right." WATCH: @AsmChrisWard at our virtual event yesterday, breaking down the threats posed by surveillance pricing and how he is working to combat the discriminatory tactic in California with AB 446.