Pluralistic: Keir Starmer appoints Jeff Bezos as his "first buddy" (22 Jan 2025)

Today's links

Keir Starmer appoints Jeff Bezos as his "first buddy": Regulatory capture, right there out in the open.
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The one weird monopoly trick that gave us Walmart and Amazon and killed Main Street: The Robinson-Patman Act is how we make sure companies aren't too big to jail nor too big to care.
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The credit card fee victory is a defeat: Small cartels beat large industries every time.
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Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis: We may not know what's in the box, but we can tell if it's been damaged in transit.
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In defense of bureaucratic competence: The nine most uplifting words in the English language: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
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At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy: The CFPB rejects the learned helplessness of generations of regulators.
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Monopolizing turds: The FDA granted a pharma company a literal monopoly on shit.
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How tech does regulatory capture: An extremely frank and open look inside the ugliest of sausage-factories.
Red Team Blues Chapter One, part two: How Danny Lazer came back from the brink.
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Dow promised to turn sneakers into playground surfaces, then dumped them in Indonesia: Corporate "recycling" programs are just obfuscated landfills.
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