Media Capture

The Present and Future of Journalism: How the News Media Lost Its Purpose

At a time of information overabundance, journalism has lost its purpose. Newspapers, traditionally the keepers of journalistic flame, are going away. What...

Announcing the Participants in the Fall 2021 Stigler Center Journalists in Residence Program

This month, the Stigler Center will welcome eight world-class journalists from the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, Romania, Ukraine, Slovenia, and the United...

“This Isn’t the Kind of Journalism That Serves Democracy Best”: How Place and Privilege Came to Define American News

In an interview with ProMarket, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor Nikki Usher discusses how news in the US came to be...

Why Are Google and Facebook Now Okay with Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code?

A week of commercial deals and government negotiations has resulted in a series of amendments to the legislation aimed at making Google...

Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code is Great Politics But Questionable Economics

If the Australian government wants to subsidize high-quality journalism then it should, well, subsidize high-quality journalism. The new proposed ACCC code would...

The Persuasive Effect of Fox News: How Increases in Fox News Viewership Reduced Compliance With Social Distancing Guidelines

Using zip-code level data on Fox News viewership and individual cellphone movement data, a recent study finds that increasing the local viewership...

The Best Political Economy Books of 2019

A history of American antimonopoly, the case against Big Tech, and how Europe got better than the US at free markets: here are (in no...

Why Michael Bloomberg’s Run for President Creates an Unprecedented Media Problem

The first effect of Michael Bloomberg’s campaign and of his conflicts of interest is to reduce the 2020 candidates’ accountability: one of the world's...

How Israel's Antimonopolists Helped Take Down Benjamin Netanyahu

The corruption exposed by Israeli antimonopolists has been a key driver of Benjamin Netanyahu's current political woes.        If you pay any attention to the weird...

Vertical Media Mergers Are a Serious Threat to Freedom of Speech

Antitrust regulators should stop mergers where a firm owning the means of transmission acquires a provider of content. The people that own the pipes...

LATEST NEWS

The Kroger-Albertsons Merger Threatens Smaller Upstream Suppliers

Much of the conversation of the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger has focused on the risks to consumers. However, the merger also poses serious implications for the grocers’ upstream suppliers, particularly smaller regional firms.

Why Have Uninsured Depositors Become De Facto Insured?

Due to a change in how the FDIC resolves failed banks, uninsured deposits have become de facto insured. Not only is this dangerous for risk in the banking system, it is not what Congress intends the FDIC to do, writes Michael Ohlrogge.

Merger Law Reaches Acquirer Incentives and Private Equity Strategies

Steven C. Salop argues that Section 7 of the Clayton Act prohibits mergers in which the acquiring firm’s unilateral incentives and business strategy are likely to lessen market competition.

Tim Wu Responds to Letter by Former Agency Chief Economists

Former special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy Tim Wu responds to the November 27 letter signed by former chief economists at the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department Antitrust Division calling for a separation of the legal and economic analysis in the draft Merger Guidelines.

Can the Public Moderate Social Media?

ProMarket student editor Surya Gowda reviews the arguments made by Paul Gowder in his new book, The Networked Leviathan: For Democratic Platforms.