Hal Singer

The invisible hand guides individuals pursuing their own personal gain to promote the good of society … until it does not

You're going to start hearing a lot about how "vetted" a candidate is and it's becoming generally understood to mean that they're approved by the establishment and nothing more.

a diarrhea plague and a killer heat wave while we’re doing a Middle East war, the emperor’s army is killing people in the streets, and everyone outside the palace is facing an affordability famine — we’re in the middle of one of those apocalyptic Biblical prophecies

Paramount and the Ellison's just got punched in the nose as the Writer's Guild filed an antitrust case to stop the merger on labor grounds. Here's major Hollywood writer Mike Schur explaining. wga.org/uploadedfiles/…

BOOM: Out of nowhere, Writers Guild West & East have filed yet another lawsuit to block the Paramount-WB merger, one day after & in the same court as the states’ case. Case alleges labor harm to writer wages for high *budget* films >$100m. Paramount’s troubles are escalating.

The state challenge to the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is simple: if a company controls 27% of all wide-release films & 34% of all cable channels (by viewership), it can bargain with distributors for better terms, leading to higher consumer prices. prospect.org/2026/07/14/cha…

I realize shippers would prefer to pay a zero percent tax compared to a positive tax, but if Iran would settle for a modest fee (less than 0.5 percent), in exchange for providing safe passage, then we could spare a lot of costs that are being incurred by keeping this war going.

Strongly questioning Trump’s grasp of basic pricing theory. By setting a fare to cross the Strait of Hormuz at a massive premium over comparable fares—e.g., the fare to cross the Strait of Malacca is less than 0.5 percent of cargo value—Trump is encouraging the Iranians to *raise* their prices to shippers seeking to cross the Strait of Hormuz.

Amazing admission from Matt Yglesias - politics shouldn't try to shift public opinion. He fundamentally does not understand what politics is. This is why DNC politicians and media allies offer no political vision — they don't think you should have one!

Paramount owner Larry Ellison had to use his political connections to shut down the Federal Antitrust Division's investigation, because staff wanted to bring a case. If the case is such a distortion of the law, why not let the investigation conclude? x.com/brianstelter/s…

🚨A dozen states just sued to block the $110 billion Paramount/Warner Bros merger. It's a good, compact complaint -- rereading it now and will note initial reactions in a 🧵below. (1/x)

Just read the complaint. This is a strong, traditional lawsuit - no frills, no untested theories. Just the recognition of the obvious fact that if you combine two of the biggest five studios, they're going to feel less pressure to make new films. If you merge one company that owns an alphabet soup of channels with another company that owns an alphabet soup of channels, people will pay for that on their cable bill. The billionaires who own Paramount win, you lose, your local movie theater loses, and all the people who make film and television lose, too. I think @AGRobBonta, @NewYorkStateAG James and their colleagues will win this, and anyone on Wall Street who is pricing this otherwise should take a moment to read the lawsuit.

I have a new piece out discussing the Law School Admission Council antitrust case. I talk about why it’s significant that this case is happening now, and what it means for the fraught higher ed admissions game. Pleasure to collaborate with @halsinger on this.

The monopoly round-up is out. Billionaire Larry Ellison is lashing out wildly after states look primed to challenge his son's Paramount-Warner merger. thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-rou…

Told by whom? A lawyer? Sounds like multiple absurd and desperate threats being aired to dissuade State AGs from suing to enjoin the merger.

Epilogue: By coincidence, Comcast announced last month its plans to spin off its NBC network division. At least that episode of a distribution platform swallowing content lasted more than three years!

The performance of Microsoft’s gaming division since it gobbled up Activision has been an unmitigated disaster. They’re firing another 3,200 workers and disposing of studios. In light of its “strategic blunders,” investors are calling for it to spin off its gaming business entirely. The FTC tried to stop the acquisition under a theory of vertical foreclosure—that the platform would deny rivals access to its newly acquired content. But perhaps a better theory for stopping these vertical mergers, including Facebook’s failed acquisition of Within, is that vertically integrated platforms are where independent content goes to die. The bloated bureacracy of a conglomerate is just too big and unwieldy to cultivate talent.

They supported Andrew Cuomo just a few months ago. They defended Biden against sexual assault allegations until he was no longer politically useful. They don’t care about women they care about protecting allies and weaponizing accusations against political opponents. They act in bad faith, and their primary objective is to undermine any momentum on the left that challenges the political establishment.

You’ve been given free access to this story from The Economist as a gift. You can open the link five times within seven days. After that it will expire. Two cheers for Trump Accounts economist.com/leaders/2026/0…

This is a wild admission by @TheEconomist. The next generation will not buy into the “free enterprise” system unless they are coopted via stock market ownership, funded in part by oligarchs; the ability to earn income from their labor alone may not be sufficient. My Lord. Maybe a system that requires bribery for popular buy-in requires a rethink? The alternative to such bribery would be to boost the bargaining power of workers, via unionization, a federal jobs program, and higher minimum wages, but neoliberals would never go for that!

@EvansVeris @TheEconomist You’ve been given free access to this story from The Economist as a gift. You can open the link five times within seven days. After that it will expire. Two cheers for Trump Accounts economist.com/leaders/2026/0…

@halsinger @TheEconomist Link to article please?