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Articles by Hal Singer
Battling an Army of Price-Setters
This article appears in the October 2026 issue of The American Prospect magazine. If you’d like to receive our next issue in your mailbox, please subscribe here. When inflation spiked shortly after the COVID crisis, neoliberal economists kicked into high gear. Their mission was to defend corporations for all price hikes.
The Paramount Settlement Started With Trump
This article originally appeared at The Sling, a source for economic analysis and competition policy research. We are witnessing the collapse of antitrust enforcement at the federal level under the second Trump administration. State enforcers have attempted to fill the void. But absent a muscular federal cop on the beat, state efforts will often be in vain.
The Paramount Settlement Started with Trump
We are witnessing the collapse of antitrust enforcement at the federal level under the second Trump administration. State enforcers have attempted to fill the void. But absent a muscular federal cop on the beat, state efforts will often be in vain. The exceedingly weak settlement between Paramount and the states, announced on Monday by the attorney general of California, illustrates this dynamic.
Inside the Black Box: A Practitioner’s Guide to Machine Learning Used in Pricing Algorithms
Though now a part of the modern vernacular, machine learning mechanisms that motivate algorithmic pricing remain “black box” terms to many antitrust practitioners and legal scholars alike. Such informational barriers impede proper evaluation of these pricing methodologies, potentially either failing to detect anticompetitive conduct or inadvertently condemning innocuous or even procompetitive practices. Determining the relative likelihood of either outcome requires, inter alia, a working und ...
Are We Still Litigating Whether Corporate Profit-Taking Contributed to Inflation?
The post-pandemic inflation surge generated an intense debate over the role of corporate profits and market power. One side argues that supply disruptions created opportunities for companies, especially in concentrated industries, to raise prices in coordination beyond their rising costs. The other side responds by noting that profits could have increased due to rising demand, while asserting that the ability to coordinate price hikes did not suddenly increase in 2021.
Exclusive Listings Are Bad for Homebuyers and Sellers
In May, Zillow filed a lawsuit against real estate brokerage Compass Inc. and a large multiple listing services (MLS) firm in Chicago, claiming the two firms violated antitrust law by colluding to hide home listings from buyers. No matter the outcome in this dispute, the interests of American homebuyers and sellers likely will not be served, as the market has been effectively rigged. To understand why, a brief history of real estate listings is in order.
The Perils of Personalized Pricing
Decades without comprehensive data privacy legislation have eroded our privacy to a degree that would make dystopian fiction writers queasy. Yet some of the worst consequences of this erosion lie just over the horizon. Using our unprotected information, companies can now craft detailed data profiles for nearly all consumers.
A Progressive Platform for Confronting the AI Threat to Jobs
Progressives are right to feel that something has gone badly wrong in the way artificial intelligence (AI) is being introduced into society. The anxiety is not abstract. To the extent that graduation ceremonies are any indication, where speakers who celebrated the promises of AI were roundly booed, a small but telling sign that many young people do not experience this technology as an invitation to the future, but as another force being imposed upon them. Their skepticism is not misplaced.
Dehubbing Competitors at the Airport
United made news last month when its CEO, Scott Kirby, floated the audacious idea of acquiring American Airlines. Such a move would be blatantly anticompetitive, given the intense rivalry among the nation’s largest carriers. For certain routes, such as Charlotte to Washington Dulles, United and American are the only two carriers offering non-stop service—the deal would create a monopoly on that route.
A Proposal to Reinvigorate Antitrust Enforcement: Apply Per Se Treatment to Price- and Wage-Fixing Scheme Involving Intermediaries
Price-fixing conspiracies among horizontal sellers are condemned under the antitrust laws as per se offenses. Ditto for wage-fixing conspiracies among horizontal buyers of labor. At least in theory. In practice, conspiracies are often structured differently than these textbook examples, which has led courts to apply the more exacting rule-of-reason standard to conspiracies that would otherwise be classified as per se unlawful.
Was California’s 2024 Minimum Wage Increase for Fast-Food Workers Bad Economic Policy?
Over the weekend, someone forwarded me a tweet by George Mason economist Alex Tabarrok, who claimed that not one but two new studies provide conclusive evidence that higher minimum wages are a bad thing. Although this tribe shows little sympathy for the plight of workers and despises unions in particular, I thought it was worth digging into the evidence in support of their positions.
Zillow's Latest Scheme Warrants Antitrust Scrutiny
The commission re-coupling built into Zillow Preview echoes the very conduct that triggered the largest antitrust verdict in residential real estate history. Zillow’s CEO Jeremy Wacksman has been making the rounds.
When Monopolists Act Above the Law: The Curious Case of Zillow
Zillow is dominant in the market for online rental listings—more formally known as Internet Listing Services (ILS)—which are used by renters to search for and find their next rental home or apartment. Zillow controls over half of this market, per its own estimates. According to Comscore’s visitor-traffic analytics, Zillow overtook CoStar (owner of Apartments.com) in 2022 to become the nation’s leading ILS platform.
Another War, Another Excuse for Profiteering
Crisis and war are good for oil companies. Prices spike. Consumers pay more. Companies walk away richer than before. It happened during COVID-19, when supply chain chaos sent prices soaring across the economy. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, non-financial corporate profits as a share of GDP jumped from 13.9 percent before the pandemic to 16.2 percent after—meaning companies weren’t just passing along higher costs. They were padding their margins.
A Celebration of Concentration: Reply to Shapiro’s and Yurukoglu’s “Trends in Competition in the United States”
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, groceries, health insurance, concert tickets, ski passes, or video streaming services, consumers have experienced a consistent rise in prices, making things less affordable. In most facets of our lives, we are confronted by a dominant firm (or two if we’re lucky) plus a fringe set of competitors.
라이벌이 유튜브라고? 넷플릭스 주장이 억지스러운 까닭
최근 반독점 문제를 다루는 상원 법사위원회 소위원회에서 넷플릭스와 워너브라더스 디스커버리의 합병안에 대한 청문회가 열렸다. 청문회장에 등장한 ‘모노폴리 맨(보드게임 캐릭터)’ 복장을 한 테드 서랜도스 넷플릭스 CEO는 위원회 멤버 모두가 품고 있는 핵심 우려를 상징적으로 보여줬다. 바로 넷플릭스가 이미 구독형 비디오 서비스(SVOD) 시장의 지배적 사업자이며, 워너 브라더스 인수가 이들의 독점적 지위를 더욱 굳건히 할 것이라는 점이다. 마이크 리 위원장은 이번 합병이 허용될 경우 넷플릭스가 “모든 플랫폼을 지배하는 단 하나의 플랫폼”이 될 수 있다고 경고했다. 이런 결과는 스트리밍 서비스 소비자뿐만 아니라 매력적인 콘텐츠를 만들어내는 제작자들에게도 피해를 줄 수 있다. 당연하게도 테드 서랜도스 넷플릭스 CEO는 넷플릭스가 경쟁하는 시장의 범위를 매우 넓게 정의함으로써 우려를 가라앉히려 애썼다. 그의 준비된 발언문에는 넷플릭스의 라이벌로 지목된 ‘유튜브’가 25번이나 언급됐다.
Netflix dominates streaming. No wonder it’s trying to redefine the market Original
This week the Senate Judiciary subcommittee responsible for antitrust issues held a hearing on the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Brothers Discovery. The Monopoly Man in attendance embodied the concern that was top of mind for every committee member: Netflix is already the dominant player in subscription video-on-demand, and its acquisition of Warner Bros. could cement its unrivaled monopoly.
Housing prices are up, and would-be homeowners are shifting to rental units. The inventory of homes for sale is shrinking because investors are buying up properties with cash offers. Investors then rent the homes to households who cannot afford mortgages. Many feel that the American dream of homeownership is slipping away. Building more homes won’t alleviate the problem if those additions are not in the right location or if investors buy them first.
The Economist Claims “America’s Affordability Crisis Is (Mostly) a Mirage.” When It Comes to Rental Affordability, That’s Demonstrably False.
Price inflation has been the dominant economic concern for Americans in the post-Covid era. The rising prices of cars, groceries, healthcare (especially given recent Congressional inaction) have all imposed increasing burdens on the average American. Despite the consistent price hikes for those items, all of them pale in comparison to the skyrocketing rental costs that Americans have endured since the pandemic.
The Netflix-Warner Brothers Merger Would Harm Streaming Subscribers. It Should Be Blocked.
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 subscription streaming platform, HBO Max. As shown in the figure below, lifted from The Economist, Netflix and Warner Brothers comprise the first- and fourth-largest streaming platforms based on third quarter 2025 global subscribers.
The Antitrust Case Against Airbnb
Common pricing algorithms can be used to coordinate prices among sellers, to the detriment of buyers. RealPage is the seminal case, but there are (alas) plenty of others. The problem is particularly acute in a two-sided transactional platform setting, where the platform influences—and sometimes coerces—the pricing decisions of its sellers. Take the case of Airbnb.
To Limit Hunger, Progressives Should Embrace This Price Discrimination Plan
When it is funded, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (colloquially known as food stamps) helps feed over 40 million people every month by dispensing $187 per average recipient. The program is especially critical for families—children represent about 40 percent of all SNAP recipients.
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 committee, spin it into their narrative, and voila, their pet theory is proven right. Even a Nobel prize winner says so! We should take such claims with a grain of salt.
Why Did Hotel Rates Surge in Vegas? (Hint: It’s Wasn’t the Demand)
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 higher prices—I’d have, like, 25 dollars. Since the post-Covid era, the Times in particular, and the mainstream business press in general, have been feeding us a steady diet of demand-driven inflation explainers.
The Trump Administration Should Tap the Brakes on the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Merger
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 1980 Staggers Rail Act, the number of Class 1 freight railroads in the The new millennium saw an industry dominated by four major railways that collectively controlled around 90 percent of the total domestic rail operating revenues.
Skip the Spending Plans. Head Directly to Government Jobs.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s failure to garner votes for Democrats has generated significant handwringing in political circles. Although targeted toward benefiting red states, the IRA failed to produce meaningful impact before the 2024 presidential election. Voters presumably care about one type of spending—the type that results in an immediate reward.
Did DOJ’s Investigation of the Egg Industry Cause Egg Prices to Fall?
Last September, then vice-presidential candidate JD Vance proclaimed in a Pennsylvanian supermarket, “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now a dozen eggs will cost you around $4.” The implication was clear—the Biden Administration’s policies allegedly caused egg prices to skyrocket.
Microsoft Says AI Has Boosted Worker Productivity. Their Pay Doesn’t Reflect It.
Since the launch of ChatGPT back in November of 2022, what was once a concept confined to Sci-Fi novels has now certifiably hit the mainstream. The highly visible advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years have either been awe-inspiring or dread-inducing depending on your perspective, your occupation, and maybe how much Nvidia stock you owned before 2023.
Delta’s AI-Based Personalized Pricing Is Bad for Flyers. It Should Probably Be Banned.
Delta president Glen Hauenstein investors in July that AI-based pricing is currently used on about 3 percent of its domestic network, and that the company aimed to expand AI pricing to 20 percent of its network by the end of the year. This is bad news for flyers, and given the particular way Delta is accessing the technology, is particularly bad for competition.
Progressives Need a New Toolkit to Fight Inflation
In February 2022, I wrote a piece in The American Prospect advocating for antitrust enforcement as a means to combat inflation. I wasn’t totally wrong. In light of personal experience in price-fixing litigation and the fate of the Biden administration, however, my perspective has shifted. Antitrust can be part of the solution, but it can’t be the entirety.
What Obligation Does a Successful Employer Owe Its Workers?
Imagine two business partners, Sue and Steve, form a company. The company finds success and is acquired by a larger competitor. After the sale has been consummated but before the payment has arrived, Sue seeks to dissolve the partnership, asserting that Steve does not deserve any of the proceeds from the sale.
The NCAA Proves Adam Smith Right
Back in 2011, ESPN and the NCAA agreed to a $34 million per year media deal that gave ESPN the right to broadcast championships in 29 different college sports. The list of sports included every single college sport played by women. As time went by, it became increasingly clear this media deal dramatically undervalued the rights to women’s sports.
The Federal Reserve Isn’t Responsible for the Soft Landing—Though to Understand Why, We Need More Than Econ 101 - The Sling
After years of inflation-driven concerns over the state of the economy, it seems that the mythical soft landing has been achieved; things aren’t perfect but inflation is down without the United States hitting a recession. The labor market has weakened some in recent months, but is still largely okay and the Federal Reserve has started cutting rates in a move to ease downward pressure on employment. In 2022, Bloomberg Economics put the odds of a recession within the next year at 100 percent.
The Fed Chair Thinks Wall Street Should Have Veto Power over Financial Regulations. That’s a Mistake.
Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman took to the pages of the gray lady on August 13 to stress the importance of central bank independence. The piece was a response to recent comments from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, both of whom have argued that presidents should have a “say” in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decisions.
Are Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Driving Up the Cost of Housing?
My musings on Twitter are mostly a stream of poking fun of corporatist takes in The New York Times or The Economist. Every once in a while, for reasons that are impossible to understand, a tweet takes off, like this one, which mocked a far-fetched inflation theory propagated in a guest essay for the Times on July 8. Under this theory, elevators and the elevator union are to blame for the housing affordability crisis.
Slaying the Trolls with the Slingshot!
Okay, can’t resist that title! I recently had the great privilege of being on a podcast called The Slingshot (a great name!). This podcast comes from The Sling, a website that aims to be “the source for progressive antitrust and consumer protection law and economics.” In a broader sense, The Sling is focused on how people with power exploit those who don’t have power.
Sorry Matt Yglesias, Hipster Antitrust Does Not Mean the Abandonment of Consumers. But It Does Mean New Ways to Protect Workers.
Neoliberal columnist Matt Yglesias recently weighed into antitrust policy in Bloomberg, claiming falsely that the “hipsters” in charge of Biden’s antitrust agencies were abandoning consumers and the war on high prices. Yglesias thinks this deviation from consumer welfare makes for bad policy during our inflationary moment. I have a thread that explains all the things he got wrong.
Sorry Matt Yglesias, Hipster Antitrust Does Not Mean the Abandonment of Consumers. But It Does Mean New Ways to Protect Workers.
Neoliberal columnist Matt Yglesias recently weighed into antitrust policy in Bloomberg, claiming falsely that the “hipsters” in charge of Biden’s antitrust agencies were abandoning consumers and the war on high prices. Yglesias thinks this deviation from consumer welfare makes for bad policy during our inflationary moment. I have a thread that explains all the things he got wrong.
What Does the Supreme Court Have to Say About Consumer Welfare? A Reply to Professor Hovenkamp
There is a tension in the discourse as to the purpose of antitrust policy. In one camp, consumer welfare still reigns supreme. In another, there is greater acceptance that the consumer welfare standard is flawed, or at least controversial. Disciples of the first camp argue that antitrust policy should focus exclusively on increasing output as a proxy for consumer welfare.
Interview with Austin Frerick, author of "Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry"
Austin Frerick is the author of the book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, out later this month, which explores the powerful corporations that monopolize entire sectors of the U.S. food system: from pork, beef, and dairy, to grains, coffee, berries, and grocery stores.
Overdraft Fees, Credit Card Late Fees, and the Lump of Profit Fallacy
Introduction In January 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed to limit fees charged for overdraft credit when that credit is not offered in compliance with the price disclosures and other requirements of the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).[1] In particular, the rule would limit high fees when they are used as a back-end profit center, and it would require compliance with TILA if the banks want to charge fees higher than those limits.
Did Economists Break the Economy? Review of Deaton’s Economics in America - The Sling
After about a decade of teaching, it finally occurred to me that interviewing an accomplished economist (or economic critic) would be more entertaining—and hopefully more educational—than asking students to listen to me wax on about economic expert “war stories” for two hours. Also, by inviting a book author, I could compel students to digest the reading material before class, by submitting ten original questions with pinpoint cites to the reading in advance of the lecture.
The Lie Banks Use To Protect Their Late-Fee Profits
Much of modern economics borrows from physics. Some of these appropriations, like how the scientific concept of maximum energy has influenced the study of consumer behavior, proved immensely valuable. But somewhere along the way, neoliberals and economic pundits misappropriated a physics concept — the conservation of energy — to fend off any attack on hidden fees or ill-gotten profits.
So Long as Professional Teams Have Local Monopolies, Stadium Subsidies Will Never End
According to J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State, owners of professional men’s sports teams have received more than $19 billion in taxpayer subsidies this century. And according to a recent article in the Salt Lake City Tribune, men’s professional sports around the United States continue to ask for billions more.
Why the FTC Needs to Intervene in Law School Rankings
Since the boycott of the U.S. News and World Report Rankings (“U.S. News Rankings”) by a group of law schools, the U.S. News Rankings have gone a bit haywire. The top law schools, all highly ranked, refused to submit data to U.S. News. Other schools followed their lead. As a result, U.S. News changed its rankings, perhaps focusing a bit more on publicly available data. But that has led to speculation of potentially wild results.
Did Microsoft’s Firing of 1,900 Workers Reflect the Exercise of Newfound Buying Power from Its Acquisition of Activision?
The news of the layoffs was stunning: Three months after consummating its $68 billion acquisition of Activision, Microsoft fired 1,900 employees in its gaming division. The relevant question, from a policy perspective, is whether these terminations reflect the exercise of newfound buying power made possible by the merger? If so, then Microsoft may have just unwittingly exposed itself to antitrust liability, as mergers can be challenged after the fact in light of clear anticompetitive effects.
It’s Time To Revisit Price Controls, Beginning with Limits on Overdraft Fees
Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Biden White House proposed to limit prices on overdraft protection by banks. This is smart policy and is backed by sound economics. While inflation ran hot in 2022 and 2023, talk of price controls bubbled to the surface, even in economic circles.
The FTC Just Blocked Four Mergers in a Month. Here’s How Its Latest Win Fits Into the Broader Campaign to Revive Antitrust.
The FTC just secured a big win in its IQVIA/Propel case, the agency’s fourth blocked merger in as many weeks. This string of rapid-fire victories quieted a reactionary narrative that the agency is seeking to block too many deals and also should win more of its merger challenges. (“The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small!”) But the case did a lot more than that.
Buttigieg’s New-Look DOT Should Extend Its Winning Streak By Halting the Alaska-Hawaiian Airlines Merger
For his first two years as Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg demurred on critical transportation regulation, especially oversight of airlines. Year three has seen a welcome about-face.
Will Roark’s Acquisition of Subway Lead to a Sandwich Monopoly? It Depends on How You Slice It!
Right before Thanksgiving, Josh Sisco wrote that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the $9.6 billion purchase of Subway by private equity firm Roark Capital creates a sandwich shop monopoly, by placing Subway under the same common ownership as Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, McAlister’s Deli, and Schlotzky’s. The acquisition would allow Roark to control over 40,000 restaurants nationwide.
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