Hal Singer

Nicely put!

A Celebration of Concentration: Reply to Shapiro’s and Yurukoglu’s “Trends in Competition in the United States” - The Sling You don’t have to be an economist to recognize that we are living through an era of diminished competition. You simply must open your eyes and ears. And wallet. Whether paying for airline tickets, gro...

My reply to Shapiro’s and Yurukolgu’s new paper on what to make of more concentration and higher price/cost markups is available at @theslingutah.bsky.social

www.thesling.org/a-celebratio...

For an example of what I'm talking about, here's a conversation with @halsinger.bsky.social and @lindsayowens.bsky.social about what 'the left' was saying about the economy and what centrists, like the disgraced and influencial Larry Summers, were doing to sabotage it.
bsky.app/profile/thim...

Are Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Driving Up the Cost of Housing? - The Sling It would be nice for the Times to give some attention to an alternative and more plausible hypothesis behind the housing affordability crisis—namely, that hedge funds and private equity firms have bee...

Am I wrong?
I don't know. Here's a @halsinger.bsky.social article:
www.thesling.org/are-hedge-fu...

Can Private Equity Save Athletics at the University of Utah? - The Sling In December, Dennis Romboy and Art Raymond of Deseret News reported that the University of Utah’s board of trustees approved a first-of-its-kind private equity deal between the school and Otro Capital...

Check out @wagesofwins.bsky.social's new piece in @TheSlingUtah. "Can Private Equity Save Athletics at the University of Utah?"

www.thesling.org/can-private-...

Can Private Equity Save Athletics at the University of Utah? - The Sling In December, Dennis Romboy and Art Raymond of Deseret News reported that the University of Utah’s board of trustees approved a first-of-its-kind private equity deal between the school and Otro Capital...

The University of Utah (a non-profit institution) wants to work directly with a for-profit private equity firm in college sports.

I explain at @theslingutah.bsky.social why it seems both the university and the firm don't truly understand the college business.
www.thesling.org/can-private-...

LEVER TIME: Meet The Pundits Who Falsely Blamed Inflation On Workers On this week’s Lever Time: David speaks with two experts about the growing consensus that corporate profits are driving inflation.

What that will require is a better democratic party and a better media.
And much MUCH less Larry Summers.
I was listening to an old conversation between @davidsirota.com, @halsinger.bsky.social, and @lindsayowens.bsky.social
www.levernews.com/lever-time-m...
...

When Uber charges more on phones with low battery and Princeton Review charges more for zip codes with larger Asian populations, the abusive nature of surveillance pricing is hard to deny.
But its' success also relies on market failures like oligopoly concentration.

Slingshot Episode 27 - The Sling Basel Musharbash of the Antimonopoly Counsel explains the cause of skyrocketing prices for groceries and housing.

In the latest Slingshot Podcast, @halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush interview @basel.bsky.social on all things eggs, beef, housing, and abundance.

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/video/slings...

The Netflix-Warner Brothers Merger Would Harm Streaming Subscribers. It Should Be Blocked. - The Sling Warner Bros. Discovery (“Warner Brothers”) announced on Wednesday that it is poised to reject a takeover bid by Paramount, clearing the way for Netflix to acquire Warner Brother’s studio and subscript...

New in @theslingutah.bsky.social, @halsinger.bsky.social and Jacob Linger examines how antitrust enforcers and courts will think about market definition in the pending Netflix-Warner Brothers merger.

www.thesling.org/the-netflix-...

The Antitrust Case Against Airbnb - The Sling Airbnb isn’t just facilitating a data exchange; it is incentivizing or coercing homesharers on its platform to participate in a common pricing scheme. A coercion-based approach to enforcement should o...

In his latest, @halsinger.bsky.social explores how Airbnb provides homeshares a common pricing algorithm, called “Smart Pricing,” that serves to coordinate pricing of rental units on its platform.

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/the-antitrus...

Slingshot Episode 26 - The Sling Tim Wu, Professor at Columbia Law School, former advisor in the Biden White House is the author of the new book, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future...

In our latest Slingshot, @halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush interview @superwuster.bsky.social about his new book, The Age of Extraction, and Tim’s recent NY Times opinion piece on the Facebook-Instagram decision.

Go give it a listen—and then go read his book!

www.thesling.org/video/slings...

Deciphering the Meaning of This Year’s Nobel Prize in Economics - The Sling Advocates of all stripes will pounce on a Nobel prize in economics to promote their particular policy agenda. They find a strand of the work by the winning economist, or a snippet from the Nobel commi...

Advocates will pounce on a Nobel prize in economics to promote their policy agenda. They find a strand of the work by the winners, spin it into their narrative, and voila, their pet theory is proven right. My latest on the meaning of this year’s Nobel prize.

www.thesling.org/deciphering-...

To Preserve Railroad Competition, the STB Should Separate the Track from the Train - The Sling Not only the UK, but many other countries have public ownership of their rail systems. Early in the development of America’s railroad system, states were often the owners of the lines that operating c...

In a new piece, Peter Carstensen, Emeritus U. of Wisconsin Law Professor, explains that if the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger is allowed, there should be separation between ownership of the tracks and operation of the freight services on those tracks.

www.thesling.org/to-preserve-...

Slingshot Episode 24 - The Sling Erik Peinert, assistant professor of political science at Boston University, discusses his book, “Monopoly Politics: Competition and Learning in the Evolution of Policy Regimes” and recent LPB Blog Po...

The latest Slingshot features Erik Peinert, professor of political science at BU and author of the new book, Monopoly Politics. We discussed whether antitrust enforcement will go dormant again, or whether anti-monopoly politics are here to stay. Enjoy!

www.thesling.org/video/slings...

Why Did Hotel Rates Surge in Vegas? (Hint: It’s Wasn’t the Demand) - The Sling If I had a dollar for every New York Times business story that attributed an industry-wide price hike in the post-Covid era to an outward shift in demand—that is, a story that blamed consumers for hig...

I am on a mission to get the business press to stop blaming consumers for industrywide price hikes, and instead look at the companies actually setting prices. Or in the case of Vegas hotels, companies turning over their pricing decisions to a common pricing agent.

www.thesling.org/why-did-hote...

Opinion | The W.N.B.A. Is Making More Money Than Ever. Why Aren’t the Players? (Gift Article) Other professional sports leagues give their players roughly 50 percent of the revenue, but the W.N.B.A. players get less than 10 percent.

Wrote this for the New York Times today (hope this link works!)

W.N.B.A. is doing immensely well! Time to pay the players!!

Thanks to Sara Chodosh for asking me to write this (helping with the writing) and making the cool graphics!!

urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

What could a proposed Rail Merger mean for Shippers in Montana? - Voices of Montana What Could a Proposed Rail Merger Mean for Shippers in Montana? Join guest host Steve Arveschouh for an insightful discussion on how the potential merger between two of the top six Class 1 rail transp...

Had the pleasure to speak on Voices of Montana today about the harms of consolidation generally & the pending UP-Norfolk Southern railroad merger in particular. If you’re following this case, or just curious about how the merger will be evaluated, go check it out!
voicesofmontana.com/podcast/what...

Standing with Small Business in the Fight for a Fair Economy - The Sling To reclaim our democracy from oligarchs and billionaires, we need to build a system that working people can believe in. That means reshaping an economy that is insurmountably stacked against working p...

New on The Sling:
Seth Frotman writes about the common interest of small business, workers, and consumers: Fighting corporate abuse.

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/standing-wit...

DDC Judge Sooknanan rightfully blocked the FTC’s CID to @mmfa.bsky.social as unconstitutional. The opinion is worth a read ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

No, The Tunney Act Won’t Save Democracy - The Sling Is there a problem with Paramount making a major settlement with Trump and firing Colbert and then having its merger with Skydance approved? We’ll never know, because the courts will only review the c...

Darren Bush writes about the history of the Tunney Act. And while not all of the cases are in the DC Circuit, the vast majority are, and other circuits rely on DC Circuit caselaw and experience.

Only one Tunney Act consent decree rejection. Ever.

www.thesling.org/no-the-tunne...

Prior Authorization: A Consolidated PBM Nightmare - The Sling On December 3, 2024, Chris Salinas officially entered a nightmare that would make Freddy Krueger proud—a nightmare in the medical industry known as prior authorization. Even I, as his gastroenterologi...

PBM Nightmare! Venu Julapalli, a practicing gastroenterologist and recent UH Law grad, writes about PBMs, gives a concrete example of the health nightmares PBM consolidation has created.

Check it out:

www.thesling.org/prior-author...

The Abundance Movement’s Blindside: How Economic Concentration Fuels Political Capture in the Post-Citizens United Era - The Sling There is intense debate between Neo-Brandeisians, antitrust centrists, and supply-side “abundance” liberals, regarding the economic benefits and political dangers of concentrated markets and dominant ...

Randy Kim's latest in the Sling: "The Abundance Movement’s Blindside: How Economic Concentration Fuels Political Capture in the Post-Citizens United Era."

Adding to the abundance of failures in the abundance movement.

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/the-abundanc...

The Trump Administration Should Tap the Brakes on the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Merger - The Sling Railroad mergers haven’t happened in a while, and that’s a good thing. During the Reagan era, the country witnessed a rapid consolidation of its railroad industry. In the two decades following the 198...

Choo choo! Choo choo!
Choo choo!
Choo!
-- History of Train mergers

In The Sling, @halsinger.bsky.social explains why "The Trump Administration Should Tap the Brakes on the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Merger"

Check it out!

www.thesling.org/the-trump-ad...

Will give it a read!

Warning: To prebut arguments from defenders of price-discrimination, I used figures and basic welfare concepts. Apologies in advance.

Delta’s execs told us this month that the AI-based strategy is *increasing* unit revenues. That really should end the debate on output effects.

Delta’s AI-Based Personalized Pricing Is Bad for Flyers. It Should Probably Be Banned. - The Sling If there’s any doubt on the price effects from AI-based pricing, recall the boast from Delta’s executive—unit revenues are rising, which can’t happen if Delta is using the technology to drop prices on...

If Delta were implementing AI-based personalized pricing on its own, that would be bad for travelers. That Delta is using a common algorithm from an GenAI airline pricing consultant makes it even worse. My latest here:

www.thesling.org/deltas-ai-ba...

Major League Baseball Owners Are Agitating (Again) for a Salary Cap. This Isn’t Good News for Players. - The Sling Why do owners want a salary cap? The spending by teams like the Dodgers does bid up the cost of free agents. If the league could cap spending, players would generally be cheaper. And that would transf...

www.thesling.org/major-league...
My latest for The Sling is a classic story!

Nearly 20 years ago, we argued in The Wages of Wins that baseball doesn't need salary controls because money can't buy happiness.

And here we are again!

Good to be playing the old favorites!

@halsinger.bsky.social

Microsoft Says AI Has Boosted Worker Productivity. Their Pay Doesn’t Reflect It. - The Sling A recent working paper authored by Microsoft researchers and academics analyzes the productivity increases in (non-terminated) software developers who use AI tools. The authors find that developers us...

I have a new piece up at @theslingutah.bsky.social, co-authored with Gavin Sicard, that examines whether Big Tech and Microsoft in particular has shared any of the AI-based productivity gains with its workers in the form of higher wages. Lots of cool graphs.

www.thesling.org/microsoft-sa...

Slingshot Episode 23 - The Sling Hal and Darren discuss remedies in the Google search case with AELP’s Laurel Kilgour.

Are divestitures a bad thing?

@halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush brought
@econliberties.bsky.social's Laurel Kilgour onto the podcast to discuss this issue plus other remedies on the table in the Google search antitrust case.

www.thesling.org/video/slings...

Go give it a watch!