Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Basel Musharbash

@musharbash_b

4,213

Followers

5,462

Following

1,576

Media

39,260

Statuses

Lawyer helping small towns build community wealth & fight monopoly power | Principal @AntimonopolyUS | Hannah Arendt & John Dewey stan | views mine

Paris, TX

https://t.co/3NIaNvZig4

Joined March 2020

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

Pinned Tweet

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 days

Very, very excited to see the first component of @FarmActionUS 's Food & Agriculture Data Hub go live! This is a project I've been working on with Farm Action for most of the year. Stay tuned –– we're going to be rolling out a lot more over the next couple of months.

@FarmActionUS

Farm Action

9 days

🚨BIG NEWS: We’ve compiled concentration data across food & ag sectors so that, for the first time, this info is on display all in one place — and it paints a disturbing picture of our food system. Check out the first piece of our consolidation data hub.⬇️

0

32

57

1

10

43

Last Seen Profiles

@laarissaasilva

@_alexsander03

@injum81

@anatalizio0523

@maryamabbasi765

@cp_khandelwal

@Rajveer68427987

@CoachRay_2

@cloudyonks

@_senaax_

@IKONASTILYA420

@jammyjays

@meowjj3

@a_bouyabes

@joannadoxx

@__helel

@maritoutcourt

@mohamed10561022

@guidsouz

@hardtooncloser

@TomodachiHubFN

@antonellaD_E

@fwndeity

@GnhsFootball

@huenigkal

@cblol_english

@Double_TroubleF

@menma_oshigoto

@2002MMAD0691

@StalkingVi96051

@_ookamikan

@s0xya

@JS_0021

@TH3_GAM3

@stw_pdg

@xDave253359

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Giant Egg Company: We raised egg prices by nearly 300% last year, our gross margin by over 500%, and our gross profits by over 1000% NYT/Vox Reporters: Got it. So we should blame skyrocketing egg prices on a minor avian flu outbreak that barely touched egg production, right?

116

6K

27K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

7 months

Spanking new Boeing planes have nosedived out of the sky, their fuselages have blown out mid flight, and Boeing has admitted to defrauding the FAA on their safety — AND YET the only person at Boeing who has been prosecuted is literally a technician. This is a mockery of justice.

Tweet media one

@petemuntean

Pete Muntean

7 months

NEW IMAGE from on board Alaska Airlines 1282 after ***part of the fuselage*** blew out mid-flight. Successful emergency return to Portland after 20 minutes in the air. 10-week-old (!) Boeing 737 Max 9. NTSB investigating.

Tweet media one

649

2K

9K

57

1K

4K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Those numbers are real by the way — from a forthcoming letter to the FTC by @FarmActionUS :

Tweet media one

13

627

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

1. This NPR segment deriding the idea that egg & fuel companies are price-gouging consumers is what happens when reporters think they're being clever & contrarian, but they're actually just parroting corporate talking points laundered thru an economist.

Tweet card media

Is price gouging a problem? : The Indicator from Planet Money

Consumers and politicians around the country are making a lot of noise about price gouging. But when do prices cross the line from simply high to something more painful? We talk to an economist to...

36

344

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

They’re doing this shit in plain sight and it pisses me off, man. Top dog egg producer w/ 20% market share started bumping up its prices early in year. Wound up hiking prices nearly three-fold & gross margins over five-fold, and the other major producers just followed its lead.

17

272

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Johnson & Johnson’s spin-off-the-cancer-lawsuits-into-a-dummy-LLC-and-dump-it-into-bankruptcy gambit would be legalized fraud if approved and who’s defending it in court? Why, Neal Katyal, of course!

19

235

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

The YouTube comments on this interview are incredible. Sooo many people describing how monopolies killed their local grocery store, killed the manufacturer they worked for, made their job worse, or stopped them from starting a business. So many more just impressed that a

@linakhanFTC

Lina Khan

4 months

Thanks to @jonstewart for having me on to talk about @FTC ’s work to lower the cost of asthma inhalers, the importance of holding corporate executives accountable for lawbreaking, and how monopolies can use their power to bully, coerce, and censor speech.

264

729

4K

23

428

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 months

For the first time in 40 years, we have an FTC Chair who is unafraid to go after the companies that break the law **and** the executives who direct those companies to break the law. This is what real democracy looks like.

@linakhanFTC

Lina Khan

2 months

1. @FTC has taken action against Adobe and two executives for pushing people into subscriptions and then making it absurdly hard to cancel. Adobe ambushed users with hefty "early termination fees" and threw up obstacles when people tried to cancel.

228

2K

7K

21

457

2K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

The full @FarmActionUS letter to the FTC is now available here:

Tweet card media

Farm Action Calls For FTC To Investigate Record-High Egg Prices - The BayNet

WASHINGTON — In response to record-high egg prices and just before testifying at an open meeting of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), today Farm Action sent a letter urging the FTC “to promptly...

4

259

1K

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 months

A few months ago, I wrote a long article in @TheSlingUtah explaining all the red flags suggesting price-gouging & price-fixing among the major egg producers in the country. Industry-aligned economists jeered at the idea — one even called it “emotional” — and a bunch of news

Tweet media one

30

301

947

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Y'all, reading the consent decree DOJ filed last month against the chicken processors who colluded –– FOR DECADES –– to fix wages for NINETY PERCENT of the workers in that industry is WILD. The people who ran these companies were utterly lawless and felt zero shame about it.

16

182

882

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 months

Uhhhhh how exactly does this jive with lawyers using Adobe and still preserving confidentiality? Asking for many friends.

@sashayanshin

Sasha Yanshin

2 months

I just cancelled my Adobe licence after many years as a customer. The new terms give Adobe "worldwide royalty-free licence to reproduce, display, distribute" or do whatever they want with any content I produce using their software. This is beyond insane. No creator in their

Tweet media one

5K

35K

166K

11

104

871

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@JohnSmillie42 It’s effect on egg production was relatively mild:

Tweet media one

8

74

803

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Tweet media one

6

167

753

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

5 months

Self-checkout is the biggest fucking scam

164

34

706

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

10 months

@clhubes I imagine what they’re remembering is their parents/others carrying them, but the view that they see in their memory doesn’t include the person carrying them, so it feels like they floated

13

4

699

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

4. If @planetmoney is too busy to do real-world reporting and ask "Is price gouging a problem?" in an actual industry, some of us are out here doing that work for them. They're welcome to plagiarize.

Tweet card media

It's Not the Flu, Feed, or Fuel. Profiteering Is Driving Record Egg Prices. - The Sling

A deep dive into the data reveals that the avian bird flu and rising input costs are not driving egg prices. The culprit is profiteering.

www.thesling.org

6

72

447

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

3. Price gouging "can't exist," Smith says, because there's no concept for it in economic theory. Does Smith support her theoretical claim w/ real-world evidence or examples from actual markets? Nah—just vibes from Econ 101, which @planetmoney takes as good as fact.

8

36

423

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

7 months

This case might seem silly, but false advertising seriously affects opportunities for honest businesses & undermines consumers’ faith in the marketplace. It’s not much to ask from the largest corporations in the world to truthfully depict their products in advertising.

@RobertFreundLaw

Rob Freund

@RobertFreundLaw

7 months

Today, Hershey's was sued in a false advertising class action. Florida consumers say they were deceived because Reese's pumpkins don't actually have jack-o-lantern faces on them:

Tweet media one

425

2K

42K

28

29

428

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

2. The "expert" interviewed in this segment is Amy Smith, an economist at a consultancy that specializes in giving food companies the economic research they want. Big surprise: Smith thinks price-gouging is an "uneconomic," "emotion-based" idea that no one should take seriously.

1

38

417

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

@MaxKennerly “They’re doing great, but I really miss how they used to suck up to me” is not a complaint I expected to hear

0

8

422

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@JohnSmillie42 Notably, USDA itself noted that the price increases were not warranted by the avian flu outbreak’s effect on production, and rather reflected the “inelasticity of demand for eggs”

Tweet media one

4

52

411

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

Koch Industries is one of the Big Five fertilizer companies in North America. The Big Five already collude to raise prices for farmers & jointly possess monopoly power in this critical industry. They should not be allowed to expand their power through acquisitions like this one.

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

@FarmActionUS

Farm Action

6 months

We're urging @FTC and @DOJ to investigate Koch’s planned acquisition of OCI Global’s Iowa Fertilizer Co. If the deal goes through, taxpayers will have effectively subsidized the expansion of Koch’s control over the heavily concentrated fertilizer market.

2

50

94

9

185

409

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

11 months

@SabbySabs2 Disabled people also work, ma’am

1

1

388

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 months

I was talking to a trial lawyer from Little Rock the other day. He had 160 jury trials under his belt. A hundred-and-fucking-sixty. All kinds of jury trials — from simple contract disputes to dizzying consumer fraud and mass tort cases. He didn’t go to an elite law school. He

@ddayen

David Dayen

2 months

During the financial crisis it was de rigueur for prosecutors to excuse themselves for letting criminals walk by claiming juries just wouldn't understand the cases. This was always a cover story for their own fear. Juries don't have that consideration.

4

25

128

16

37

391

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

Before opening my own firm, my entire job was defending workers being sued by their shitty former employers under noncompete agreements. My clients were janitors, security guards, factory workers, realtors, doctors, executives and everything in between. I saw a security

@fightmonopolies

Fight Corporate Monopolies

@fightmonopolies

8 months

We’re blasting this ad across New York because @GovKathyHochul has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help NY’s workers by banning exploitative noncompete agreements. The legislature already passed the bill. She just needs to sign it. Governor Hochul, do the right thing.

5

58

150

4

117

377

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@dabubbby Funny story — That’s exactly what we called it in @FarmActionUS ’s letter to the FTC: it’s organized theft.

Tweet media one

0

32

303

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 month

This is an insane fact of life in America today — 4 out of 10 parents struggle to buy food for their kids over the summer (when schools don’t provide lunch and breakfast).

@MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union

1 month

Summer is the hungriest time of year. 41% of parents struggle to provide food when school is closed. It's time to make school summer meals universal.

Tweet media one

13

193

598

2

115

304

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

We really don’t talk enough about how the Nixon Administration engineered a shortage of domestic grain in 1972-73 through a secret trade deal with the Soviet Union in order to justify scrapping the New Deal supply management regime that had operated since the 1930s to moderate

14

76

295

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

John Deere’s net income in 2000—or just before it started redesigning its Tractors so only Deere-licensed dealerships could repair them—was around $0.5 billion. As Deere monopolized the repair aftermarket, its net income shot up eleven-fold to $5.963 billion in 2020.

5

53

276

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

"An employee of one poultry processor emailed EIGHT COMPETITORS that 'It's that time of year already!' and requested 'your companies projected salary budget increase recommendation.'"

5

36

264

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

1. In 2009, Obama’s antitrust chief Christine Varney invited poultry farmers to a public hearing in Alabama. 100s came to tell her about how the meatpackers abused them. When one said he worried about retaliation, she gave him her direct line. The room erupted with applause.

3

80

265

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

1. Lots of hifalutin experts are boohooing the @FTC ’s investigation of a proposed roll-up of Subway, McAlister’s, Jimmy John’s, Arby’s, and Schlotzky’s and some other fast food chains under one owner. That’s because they have no idea where normal people eat and shop.

@SenWarren

Elizabeth Warren

8 months

We don't need another private equity deal that could lead to higher food prices for consumers. The @FTC is right to investigate whether the purchase of @SUBWAY by the same firm that owns @jimmyjohns and @McAlistersDeli creates a sandwich shop monopoly.

5K

475

3K

10

34

264

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

Could it be . . . could it be that the New Deal was good?

@arielronid

Ariel Ron

6 months

it's almost like this image shows two distinct macroeconomic phases separated by the 1930s

Tweet media one

14

48

561

29

28

245

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

I swear there’s a whole political campaign Biden and Dems could run just by firing away against this sort of organized criming/thieving by the monopolies that control staples we eat and need every day. The number of targets they could fire at is basically bottomless.

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Giant Egg Company: We raised egg prices by nearly 300% last year, our gross margin by over 500%, and our gross profits by over 1000% NYT/Vox Reporters: Got it. So we should blame skyrocketing egg prices on a minor avian flu outbreak that barely touched egg production, right?

116

6K

27K

10

47

231

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

Excuse me, I want to talk to economist Amy Smith and market analyst Angel Rubio and the so-called journalists who accepted their drivel about how “normal economics” supposedly explained skyrocketing egg prices as anything more than the laundered corporate talking point it was.

@JordanUhl

jordan

1 year

In January: It's not price gouging, it's just "normal economics" Today: Profits up 718% last quarter

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

76

3K

12K

2

31

227

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

This is such a tell-tale sign of the elimination of competition in the grocery sector to me. No competent grocery store that doesn't have economic power and is subject to competitive pressures would make their customers wait 1/2 an hour to *checks notes* pay them money.

@PhilWalkable

Phil Walkability🇺🇸🦅🌲

4 months

Target 🎯 what did you do? Closing down self checkout; and understaffing checkout means there’s a 1/2 hour wait?

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

19

1

84

14

28

229

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

Counterpoint: Young, Ivy League-educated staffers generally don’t know shit but slide on a mix of unearned confidence, good manners, and status deference.

@nagy_minaj

Keith 🌴🥥

6 months

Biden’s mental acuity is so far gone that he regularly…*checks notes*…runs circles around young Ivy League-educated staffers

Tweet media one

836

417

2K

23

29

223

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

20 days

This is really dumb. I’m sorry, but it just is.

19

13

215

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

We should ban stock buybacks. Just like they were banned for most of American history. It’s so fucking stupid that we still allow this shit.

@matthewstoller

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

4 months

Secretary of the Navy to big defense firms: "You can’t be asking the taxpayer to make greater public investments while you continue to goose your stock prices through stock buybacks, deferring promised capital investments, and other accounting maneuvers.”

18

66

282

11

40

214

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

The people challenging the FTC’s authority to ban noncompetes are elite hucksters who think the powerful are exempt from the law. Pure and simple. Let’s go through the FTC Act real quick. In its very first provision, Section 5 of the FTC Act states that “all unfair methods of

@BenRemaly

Ben Remaly

3 months

Global tax services company Ryan has already sued in federal court to have the FTC's noncompete rule blocked under the Administrative Procedure Act. Ryan is repped by Gibson Dunn including fmr Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.

Tweet media one

2

44

75

17

53

213

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

11 months

Alyssa Leader dunking on and utterly crushing all the people who dare to equate what public defenders do and what Neil Katyal gets paid $1,200-an-hour to do on behalf of some of the most powerful corporations on Earth is just . . . *chef’s kiss* 10/10 A++ No Notes Beautiful

5

6

205

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

11 months

@cafreiman It’s been illegal for unions to do this since the 1950s, that’s why they don’t this. The garment workers unions in NYC built whole apartment blocks and opened groceries and factories in the 1930s and 1940s.

3

16

195

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

11 months

Lest we forget, Neal Katyal *also* argued Johnson & Johnson should be able to spin off its liability in a bunch of cancer lawsuits into an LLC and then dump that LLC into bankruptcy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@alittleleader

Alyssa Leader

11 months

Y’all it’s really unfair to just call him the “child slavery defender” lawyer as if he’s nothing more. He *also* took a huge L at SCOTUS when not a single justice agreed with him that the state should be able to steal 24k in home equity from a 94-year-old woman.

26

277

3K

1

30

198

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

We’re literally back in the McKinley era, man

@matthewstoller

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

3 months

Ladies and gentlemen, the Wall Street Journal editorial page!

Tweet media one

85

889

5K

7

32

192

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

Obsessed with Lina Khan describing the FTC’s mission as “ensuring the American people aren’t bullied, coerced, or tricked in the marketplace.” It’s as simple as that. That’s what the antitrust and consumer protection laws are all about.

5

44

193

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

No one, and I mean no one, in Biden's Administration comes across as more impressive and trustworthy than his antitrust, labor, and consumer protection enforcers. Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter, Rohit Chopra, Jennifer Abruzzo –– these are people who can't be bought, and it shows.

12

30

179

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

24 days

My pet conspiracy theory is that a big part of the reason Congress is dysfunctional is that they don’t spend enough to hire and retain experienced legislative staffers who can really dig into policy, work the committees properly, and negotiate legislation in a timely manner.

22

14

186

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

Are you a State AG? Are you eyeing a run for Governor? Well, if you bring an antitrust case against a greedy monopolist, you just might get to send $100 checks directly to your voters—complete with a letter telling them exactly where that check came from. People like $100 checks!

@MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union

8 months

BREAKING: The biggest chicken and tuna companies in the U.S. have been found guilty of price fixing. Now thousands of people are getting paid with money recovered from the corporations. The State of Washington is using over $40 million to send checks to 402,200 households.

218

5K

14K

2

42

180

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 months

In case you missed it, here’s the article: It’s Not the Flu, Feed, or Fuel. Profiteering Is Driving Record Egg Prices.

Tweet card media

It's Not the Flu, Feed, or Fuel. Profiteering Is Driving Record Egg Prices. - The Sling

A deep dive into the data reveals that the avian bird flu and rising input costs are not driving egg prices. The culprit is profiteering.

www.thesling.org

2

64

177

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 months

Let me just be clear on one thing: If your goal is to get prices as low as possible, wages as high as possible, and entrepreneurial opportunity expanded to a maximum — you would adopt Lina Khan’s policy of enforcing the antitrust laws as written in the statute books.

@matthewstoller

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

2 months

Matt Yglesias, once favorably quoted by Jeff Bezos in an Amazon shareholder letter, argues that Lina Khan's scholarship sought higher consumer prices. That's both wrong and dishonest, but it's useful insofar as it helps us understand how neoliberalism is being repackaged.

Tweet media one

16

55

374

7

29

176

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

I’m not a stickler for credentials, but also just . . . wtf 🤦🏽‍♂️

@BrightonCap

Brighton Capital

1 year

@ThomasW423 @musharbash_b She's also not an economist if a PhD is the qualification.

2

1

23

2

8

171

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

In a little over three minutes, Janet Yellen told every business in America to move its money to a TBTF bank if it wants to be protected –– and told every small bank in America to merge into a TBTF bank if it wants to survive. This is breathtakingly bad.

@SeidlerCorp

Seidler

1 year

@DoombergT @SantiagoAuFund Here is the snippet:

329

2K

5K

9

38

164

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@JohnSmillie42 To me, both. Presumably, in a competitive market, companies would take advantage of tripling prices and skyrocketing profit margins by expanding production to capture market share. But that’s not what we saw.

2

5

163

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 months

@ItsMattsLaw Sure, but I usually don’t post, you know, draft pleadings and motions to Twitter

1

1

164

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

Why isn’t J.B. Pritzker (Governor of Illinois) ever talked about as a potential Dem candidate for president?

17

8

161

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

Glad I pay taxes to support her dream of post-genocide beach houses for Israeli Settlers only.

@CensoredMen

Censored Men

8 months

🇮🇱 Daniella Weiss, the head of the Israeli Settler Movement: "Gaza must be erased so that settlers can see the sea." "In order to see the sea, all homes in Gaza must be destroyed, there are no Arabs left in Gaza."

2K

5K

7K

4

17

154

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 months

This case deals with the incipiency of the egg cartel between 2002 and 2012. It shows how the egg industry developed a whole infrastructure and set of techniques to facilitate supply- and price-fixing. That infrastructure was still in place in 2021-2022 — it’s still in place

2

31

146

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 month

The list of Bill Clinton disasters never stops growing

@rmc031

Rachel Cohen

1 month

Oh

Tweet media one

13

55

299

9

34

147

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

Was Lina Khan born in the U.S.? Because, like, you know, she’ll be 35 pretty soon, and that’s the minimum age to run for president, so —

9

4

145

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

Between a banker saying corporate profits have risen to “obscene” levels and this graph showing the average profit margin of an S&P 500 company reaching 50% higher than in 2010 . . . I think we’ve settled the debate on whether wages or profits were driving inflation.

Tweet media one

3

52

142

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

10 months

Imagine if American newspapers and outlets had the courage to publish something like this after 9/11.

@battleforeurope

Thomas Fazi

@battleforeurope

10 months

Haaretz editorial: “The disaster that befell Israel is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister... completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and

42

751

3K

1

17

144

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

1. The flow of manufacturing into rural America in the post-World War II era was largely a function of de-monopolizing the food system. In the early 1900s, the Big Five, or Four, or Three generally concentrated processing & slaughter plants near terminal markets in large cities.

5

49

138

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

10 months

I love this man. This is the right framing. This is the right politics. This is brilliant.

@MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union

10 months

On the @UAW livestream today, union president Shawn Fain dropped the mic. Just give it a listen.

102

1K

4K

3

18

142

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@KinseyAndrew @hannnahmmarie I feel like someone took special joy in writing the final sentence of this paragraph: “the Dep’t has already taken steps to effectuate Plaintiff’s ~clearly stated desire~ to opt out of the program & ~not receive $20,000~ in automatic cancellation of his student loan debts” lmao

Tweet media one

1

13

140

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

The Democratic Party’s platform in 1936 was filled with bangers. Exhibit A:

Tweet media one

9

29

142

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@PellegrinoDeano Even worse is what the ambition is! Like what the fuck is the point of spending the final years of your career (after you’ve been acting fucking attorney general!) helping pharma monopolies screw cancer patients and in the process undermine the entire product liability system?

4

4

138

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

The IRS — after city governments — is one of the best examples of how weak, underfunded, disempowered government is the worst. It becomes parasitical on the public.

@MorePerfectUS

More Perfect Union

2 years

NEW: The IRS targeted low-income wage earners for audits vastly more than other American taxpayers in 2022. They were audited at a rate 5.5x higher than people in virtually every other tax bracket, per a new Syracuse University analysis.

367

6K

20K

6

26

130

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

None of these tech bros believe in democratic government. They think they’re entitled to rule — that they’re the only ones who should get to say “what’s good & what’s bad.” They’re would-be aristocrats who want to lord over the rest of us. Fuck them.

40

30

130

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

5 months

I think it’s safe to say, when I was in law school (2015-2018), a visit from the FTC Chair would have attracted about 50 people tops, all of them headed to BigLaw. This is beautiful :)

@corinneblalock

Corinne Blalock

@corinneblalock

5 months

surprising literally no one, it’s a PACKED house for @linakhanFTC . But you can still join via zoom!

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

3

10

108

6

15

134

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

The conglomerate merger craze of the 1960s was truly insane. Greyhound –– yes, the bus company –– acquired the largest industrial leasing company in America (Booth), one of the largest meatpackers (Armour), one of the largest soapmakers (Dial), and a bunch of other firms. How

5

27

132

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

8 months

Today, in a truly profound example of American democracy in action, a jury of 9 ordinary people found that Google—one of the largest, most powerful corporations in the world—had monopolized our commerce in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, and must face the consequences.

Tweet media one

3

35

128

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

3. In the end, the risk that farmer took, and that all the farmers who spoke out at the Obama Administration’s hearings took, turned out to be for naught. The Obama DOJ brought exactly *zero* major antitrust cases in the agriculture sector over his entire 8-year tenure.

1

21

123

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 month

What this billionaire bozo means is that Lina Khan can’t be bought — and understands business all too well.

@CollisionHQ

Collision Conf

1 month

FTC chair Lina Khan “is not a rational human being. She doesn't understand business. She shouldn't be in that role.” – @vkhosla ’s scathing attack on US and EU regulators The founder of @khoslaventures joined us on Centre Stage at #CollisionConf .

23

1

19

7

19

122

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

5 months

WestLaw and Lexis should be broken up, any exclusive licenses to public materials they have should be opened to others, and there more recent mergers and acquisitions — like Westlaw’s acquisition of Casetext — should be unwound.

@matthewstoller

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

6 years

Want to know why Lexis and Westlaw is so expensive? One reason is Bill Clinton sold off the antitrust division for a large secret donation.

Tweet media one

11

90

215

10

43

123

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

Remarkable how no one thought of the FTC’s unconstitutionality in the ONE HUNDRED AND NINE YEARS since it was created.

Tweet media one

7

19

118

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

It's almost like, when inflation is driven by supply shortages and monopoly profits, raising interest rates –– which makes it harder to build more production capacity and raises barriers to entry for would-be competitors of monopolists –– does the opposite of reducing inflation.

@StephanieKelton

Stephanie Kelton

@StephanieKelton

4 months

The numbers have been kind to the thesis that raising rates might move inflation higher.

65

72

311

9

35

121

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

If you’re wondering why we can’t produce enough ammunition to sustain Ukraine—let alone have enough leftover for our own needs—the answer is simple: A few bloated companies have bought up our defense industrial base, and they have little incentive to efficiently produce anything.

@matthewstoller

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

1 year

1. Here's the backstory on what Elizabeth Warren is saying and why it's so important. First let's start by noting policy about how big a military we need is different than how to organize the industrial policy behind it. Warren here is discussing industrial policy.

28

261

928

3

43

117

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 months

Of course, before the article, there was @FarmActionUS ’s letter to enforcers — which was the first to put egg industry collusion on the political map:

Farm Action Calls for FTC to Investigate Record-High Egg Prices | Farm Action

In response to record-high egg prices and just before testifying before the FTC, Farm Action urged the agency to open an investigation.

2

39

118

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

. @FTC this seems to be problematic. A seller on Amazon used AI to write a book, attributed the book to 2 fake authors whose names are deceptively similar to those of 2 real authors, and has been selling it freely on Amazon –– which has so far refused to take remedial action.

@tedgioia

Ted Gioia

6 months

Here's the kind of garbage churned out by the AI industry. I did not write this book. Nor did Frank Alkyer, editor of DownBeat. Below is part of what I communicated earlier today to Frank. We both are filing complaints with @amazon .

Tweet media one

66

821

2K

3

28

117

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

1. Albertsons is controlled by 2 private-equity funds. They’re about to get a big payout b/c the Kroger deal commits Albertsons to pay $4 billion (all of its working capital) in a “special dividend” to shareholders next month. Here’s why I think this “dividend” is illegal. A 🧵

3

35

113

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

If you're a cattle rancher, an independent hog producer, a poultry grower, or an orchard farmer –– you should know that @RepThomasMassie took over the House Antitrust Subcommittee just so he can help JBS, Tyson, Smithfield, and Walmart consolidate even more power over you.

@ddayen

David Dayen

4 months

NEW: The leaders of the House Antitrust Subcommittee—in both parties—are trying to undermine a key FTC/DOJ rule to challenge industry concentration. They held a staff briefing today to build pro-corporate support for killing the rule.

11

119

173

6

44

113

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vision and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come out of our college campuses, the better the world for tomorrow.” — Robert

Tweet media one

12

39

114

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

7 months

Important report on Koch Industries’ proposed acquisition of an Iowa fertilizer plant that was built with $500 million in taxpayer subsidies in 2017 to compete *against* Koch Industries. Highlights the need for safeguards to ensure public subsidies don’t entrench monopolies.

@FarmActionUS

Farm Action

7 months

The Iowa Fertilizer plant was bought out by the very competitor it was built to challenge. Without proper safeguards, USDA's investments to boost food system competition will meet the same fate and end up in the hands of dominant food and ag corporations.

3

25

51

1

55

113

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

@sonimantennis My brother in Christ:

Tweet media one

1

4

111

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

“I signed a non-compete clause for power-washing out of duress. My boss said that if I didn’t sign before the end of the week, not to come in the next week … I’d like to start my own business but I would have to find another job and wait 5 years. All I know is power-washing and

5

27

104

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@banditelli Glad to know her children think she’s morally bankrupt 👏🏽

Tweet media one

2

4

102

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

Love seeing how fast & easy the Fed can make it for banks to access a liquidity facility when some VC ghoul is yelling for it. Would've been nice to see this alacrity from the Fed when it was ordered by Congress to open a Municipal Liquidity Facility at the start of the pandemic.

@Neil_Irwin

Neil Irwin

1 year

Notable that the new Bank Term Funding Facility allows banks to pledge collateral at par. Meaning holdings of long-dated Treasuries or MBS with mark-to-market losses can unlock liquidity based on original value.

100

174

612

3

23

104

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

The reality on guns is that we’ll never get rid of them until people feel like they belong to the body politic again. The reason the debate on guns goes nowhere isn’t just “politics” or the NRA. It’s that most Americans don’t believe our government is truly of, for, and by them.

8

16

105

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

4 months

@johnbyronkuhner Yes, that's why we have laws––to perpetuate and preserve a system of free, competitive enterprise. Freedom, believe it or not, doesn't maintain itself––in the marketplace as in political sphere.

5

6

103

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

6 months

Hot take: Making modern American problems into products of some original national sin only reinforces them — and lets everyone off the hook for not solving them. The reason independent farmers and food-system workers aren’t paid a decent living today isn’t because “cheap food

@REGENETARIANISM

REGENETARIANISM

@REGENETARIANISM

6 months

@GGunthorp @musharbash_b Cheap food in this country has always been based upon having an exploitable workforce whether that was with slaves, leased convicts, migrants or illegals .....on the farm, in food processing facilities, and in kitchens.

1

0

2

10

41

104

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

@JonnaChissus @CurlyClareToo Eggs, to my knowledge, we’re not the subject of substantial deregulation under Trump. Meat processing, on the other hand, is a different story; deregulation was severe and structurally advantaged the larger meatpackers.

1

7

102

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

SVB was a sleazy industry bank that was built on incestuous self-dealing arrangements with a bunch of venture capital funds & their start-ups. Our entire bank regulatory framework until the 1980s was designed to stop this sort of corrupt integration between industry and banking.

2

14

98

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

13 days

Nixon'x USDA was truly a den of ratfuckers. Look at this shit:

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

8

33

101

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

2 years

"A group of competing poultry processors exchanged (a) disaggregated raw [identifiable] data regarding the compensation of hourly-paid workers broken down by plant and location; (b) base pay and bonuses for each specific salaried position included in their survey; . . .

1

10

93

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

3 months

lol isn’t this the guy who wrote a book about how Americans aren’t switching jobs enough and moving around and shit?

@tylercowen

tylercowen

3 months

Why I don’t believe in a blanket ban on non-competes: , not to mention the constitutional issues.

10

10

71

4

18

99

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

1 year

“Two Harvard students dreamt up a plot to displace local private schools across Africa & India thru a chain of standardized, absentee-owned schools, and thereby redirecting all the capital that once flowed to local schools owned by local people to . . . the two Harvard students.”

@louise_seamster

Louise Seamster

@louise_seamster

1 year

I want us to get to where we hear re a startup offering a chain of"low-cost, for-profit private schools" in Africa and India as a *business model*, set aside the goal of serving millions of kids or the method of having teachers recite all day from a tablet, and know it's a no-go.

2

12

70

2

26

98

@musharbash_b

Basel Musharbash

9 months

1. Imagine if your boss forced you to sign a contract saying you couldn’t leave your job unless you paid a “penalty” equal to around half your salary. That’d be crazy, right? Well, it was normal life for chicken farmers until @JusticeATR brought this lawsuit yesterday. A 🧵

@JusticeATR

Antitrust Division

9 months

Justice Department Files Lawsuit and Proposed Consent Decree to Prohibit Koch Foods from Imposing Unfair and Anticompetitive Termination Penalties in Contracts with Chicken Growers

11

98

158

4

36

94