Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Sacha Sloan a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum to discuss Sacha's recent reporting on potential collusion in the microchip sector. Together they discuss how coordinated production cuts, reduced capital expenditures, and public signaling by major NAND manufacturers are contributing to a sharp supply crunch and record price increases. 

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2026 could make or break Roblox. That's because the multi-billion dollar children's video game company is mired in dozens of private lawsuits on top of multiple probes from several state governments, the FTC and the DOJ. In this episode of The Capitol Forum Investigates, reporter Ethan Ehrenhaft sits down with Arjun Singh to talk about the future of Roblox in the wake of major allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse on its platform.

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Why is it so expensive to build a house in America?

That's a question economists, politicians and pundits have argued at length about, but can't agree on. In today's episode of Second Request, executive editor Teddy Downey sits down with Steven Xiao, Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management and Ph.D candidate Zheng Liu for a robust discussion about how concentration in the homebuilding sector has led to increased costs and prices.

To learn more about The Capitol Forum click here.

Jeff Horwitz is a Wall Street Journal technology reporter who covers Facebook.  He is the lead reporter on the groundbreaking series of articles titled The Facebook Files.  The conversation covers myriad issues facing Facebook and we ask Jeff why, when facing choices between the public interest and growth on the platform, Mark Zuckerberg always chooses growth.

Evan Starr, Associate Professor of Management & Organization at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, discusses the likely economic benefits of the FTC banning non-compete agreements, including a boost to wages and worker mobility.

Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, discusses the debate around monopoly and inflation.  Matt also shares his predictions for the antimonopoly movement in 2022.

Luke Herrine, author of “The Folklore of Unfairness.” Herrine’s article, published recently in the New York University Law Review, argues that conventional wisdom – which holds that the FTC in the 1970s pursued an expansive notion of its unfairness authority but failed spectacularly – “gets the law and the history wrong.”

Instead, argues Herrine, the commission’s actions in the 1970s were quite popular, and the FTC Act’s ban on “unfair…acts and practices” is therefore “more potent than commonly assumed.” That argument could take on new urgency as current FTC Chair Lina Khan seeks to push the boundaries of the commission’s authority.

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Independent Business Initiative, which produces research and designs policy to counter concentrated corporate power and strengthen local economies.

 ILSR’s new report, Amazon’s Toll road, finds that “Amazon is exploiting its position as a gatekeeper to impose steep and growing fees on third-party sellers” and that “even as these exorbitant fees bankrupt sellers, they are generating huge profits for Amazon, a fact that the tech giant conceals in its financial reports.”

Jeff Hauser is the founder and director of the Revolving Door Project, which is an influential organization that scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they serve the public interest rather than large corporations’ interests.

 The Revolving Door Project’s newest polling and analysis memo, “Corporate Crackdown” concludes that there is broad, bipartisan support for a President who is willing to stand up to entrenched corporate power and illegal corporate conduct.

Brendan Ballou is a trial attorney at DOJ’s antitrust division and author of “The 'No Collusion' Rule,” published earlier this year in the Stanford Law & Policy Review. In that article, Ballou proposes that the FTC, under its unfair methods of competition authority, should pursue a “no collusion” rulemaking , which would seek to prevent companies from raising prices simply because their competitor has done so.

Barry Lynn has literally written the book on two of the hottest economic and policy topics right now—monopolies and supply chain fragility.  His book on monopoly is called Cornered: the new monopoly capitalism and the economics of destruction and his book on supply chains is called End of the Line. 

On a previous podcast, former FTC Chair Bill Kovacic said that Barry Lynn’s work on launching the antimonopoly movement is “one of the most successful efforts to develop a new intellectual framework and to get it into the bloodstream of the policymaking process.” 

In this episode, Barry talks about the importance of the President's executive order on competition and where the antimonopoly movement is headed next.

The Honorable Bill Kovacic gives his outlook for antitrust enforcement in the Biden administration and distinguishes between antitrust Transformationalists and Traditionalists and their struggle for influence. He also discusses antitrust rulemaking, antitrust legislation, and Robinson-Patman enforcement.

Teddy talks with Claire Kelloway, a senior reporter with the Open Markets Institute. She’s also the primary writer for Food & Power, a website providing original reporting and resources on monopoly power in the food system.

 Claire gives her outlook for antitrust enforcement in the meat industry during the Biden administration.

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Why are American soybean farmers so reliant on Chinese markets?

In this episode of Second Request, Teddy Downey sits down with Wall Street Journal reporter Patrick Thomas to discuss how soybeans became the center of a trade war between the U.S. and China. They also discuss how consolidation and monopolization in the food sector have impacted American farmers.

To learn more about The Capitol Forum click here.

If you have a pitch or tip for a story you think we should investigate contact us here.

Teddy chats with Seth Bloom, founder of Bloom Strategic Counsel and former General Counsel of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, to get his thoughts on which antitrust bills can pass Congress and get signed into law and which will be left on the cutting room floor.

 Seth and Teddy also talk about

• new priorities at the FTC,
• which already-consummated mergers the FTC might investigate and try to break up, and
• other parts of the FTC’s agenda that are being overlooked.

Teddy chats with Ron Knox, senior researcher and writer at The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, about his recent article in Wired Magazine, Big Music Needs to Be Broken Up to Save the Industry. He tells stories about 

• why music is worse now than it was when the industry was more competitive, 
• how Sweet Jane Recordings is actually owned by a big conglomerate, 
• how independent record stores ended up with prescription cough syrup instead of indie records,
• how YouTube effectively sets a floor on streaming royalty rates, and how big radio pays no royalty rates for playing music. 

Lastly, he talks about how he is optimistic that new antitrust leadership and new legislation in Congress will reshape the industry.

Teddy chats with Bill Baer about antitrust being at an inflection point, the consumer welfare test as "not even a useful construct anymore," antitrust rulemaking as a new tool in the enforcer toolbox, stepped up criminal antitrust enforcement, and a likely increase in focus on buyer power concerns from antitrust enforcers.

Following forty years of laissez-faire antitrust enforcement and industry consolidation, the White House is considering a fundamental rethink of how to interpret, enforce, and rewrite antitrust law, and many questions remain unanswered for the antitrust community.  

On the heels of federal and state litigation against Google and Facebook, is Amazon next? Will the new administration put big agriculture, big banks, and big pharma in its crosshairs? Will the courts stop antitrust enforcers in their tracks? Will the Biden administration get cold feet?

The Capitol Forum Podcast provides in-depth discussions with antitrust experts about the answers to these questions and about proposed solutions to the biggest monopoly problems of our time. Backed by the investigative resources and intellectual rigor of The Capitol Forum, Executive Editor and host Teddy Downey examines the effects of the current concentrations of market power across a vast array of industry verticals as he and his guests analyze the potential responses from the federal government. Offering thoughtful conversations with analysts and decision makers, The Capitol Forum Podcast provides everyone from C-Suite executives to policymakers, and all those in-between, strategic antitrust insights at the intersection of law, policy, and markets.

How did a popular children's game become rife with sexual abuse?

In the debut episode of The Capitol Forum Investigates, technology and privacy reporter Ethan Ehrenhaft explains why the video game maker Roblox is mired in dozens of lawsuits related to child safety on their platform, and how an investigation from The Capitol Forum revealed the vast safety flaws on Roblox's platform, which several lawsuits argue enables sexual predators to easily abuse children.

To learn more about The Capitol Forum and our journalism click here

If you are interested in working at The Capitol Forum or have a pitch for a story contact us here

In this episode, Teddy Downey, Executive Editor of The Capitol Forum sits down with Michael Kades, Antitrust Partner at Nachawati Law Group and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Adam Gitlin, Chief of the Antitrust and Nonprofit Enforcement Section at the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.

Together, they will explore how state-level enforcers are shaping the next phase of antitrust policy and what their growing influence means for markets, consumers, and competition nationwide.

In this episode, Teddy Downey sits down with Kathleen Claussen, Professor of Law at Georgetown University, and Beth Baltzan  Senior Advisor at The Capitol Forum and former Counselor for Trade and Investment to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, for a discussion on the legality of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

In this episode, Europe Executive Editor Javier Espinoza sits down with Senior Editor Jeff Bliss to discuss his reporting on the European Commission's review of the proposed $36 billion merger between Mars and Kellanova.

In this conversation, Professor John Newman, from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, former FTC official and DOJ antitrust trial attorney, shares insights on Judge Amit Mehta’s decision, the specific measures imposed on Google, and what it signals for the future of Big Tech regulation.

How does understanding AI change the way we trust it?

In this interview with The Capitol Forum’s Executive Editor & CEO, Teddy Downey, Chiara Longoni, Associate Professor of Marketing at Bocconi University and co-author of “Lower Artificial Intelligence Literacy Predicts Greater AI Receptivity,” explains the methodology and surprising findings from her research on AI literacy.

In this episode, we’re joined by Mahdavi Singh Deputy Director of the Thurman Arnold Project and Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School to discuss how Google's integration of A.I. overviews could extend its search monopoly and the legal arguments that it could violate antitrust law. 

In this Capitol Forum podcast, Executive Editor Teddy Downey speaks with Catherine Simonsen—co-founder of the newly launched Simonson Susman LLP and former FTC antitrust enforcer—about the long-neglected Robinson-Patman Act.

Together, they dissect how underenforcement of price discrimination laws has contributed to excessive consolidation, economic rent extraction, and the quiet hollowing-out of American small businesses.

Simonson outlines legal strategies to revive these laws and challenge dominant “power buyers” like Walmart and Amazon, and explains how price discrimination distorts the supply chain from producer to pharmacy shelf. This is antitrust not as theory, but as practice.

Today on The Capitol Forum Investigates, correspondent Krista Brown discusses the use of artificial intelligence in airline pricing, and how it could potentially lead to personalized prices for plane tickets.

• Aviation expert Bill McGee of the American Economic Liberties Project explains how consolidation in the airline sector has led to price gouging for passengers.
• Noah Giansiracusa, author of the book Robin Hood Math: Take Control of the Algorithms That Control Your Life explains how companies can exploit personal user data without their knowledge to determine prices.

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Generative AI is testing the limits of copyright law — and the courts are starting to weigh in.

Teddy Downey speaks with Keith Kupferschmid, CEO of the Copyright Alliance, about:

The legal stakes of AI training on copyrighted works

-Conflicting rulings in California courts

-How the Warhol decision could influence AI copyright cases

-The importance of a healthy licensing market

-What’s at risk for creators and the economy

📌 Subscribe for more policy and legal deep dives

In this episode, Capitol Forum’s Nate Soderstrom sits down with Jeremy Sanford, partner at Econic Partners and former FTC economist, to discuss his new paper on the 2015 Steris/Synergy merger—a key potential competition case that was litigated but allowed to proceed.

Jeremy walks through:

Why the FTC brought the case

-The court’s reasoning in denying the injunction

-What we’ve learned from 10 years of post-merger evidence

-How this case fits into broader merger enforcement and guideline updates

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In this wide-ranging conversation, Capitol Forum Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Beth Baltzan — former Counselor to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai — and Capitol Forum Trade Correspondent Neil Tracey to unpack the latest wave of Trump tariff threats.

We cover:

• Why Trump is targeting an unusual mix of countries
• How rare earths give China lasting leverage
• Whether USMCA will actually be exempted
• The growing influence of Big Tech on trade policy
• Section 301 vs. Section 232: What tools Trump is using — and why
• How global trust in the U.S. rule of law is eroding
• What’s missing from a purely tariff-based industrial strategy
• Why the global trading order may never be the same

Teddy Downey, Executive Editor of The Capitol Forum, sits down with Tahir Amin, co-founder of I-MAK, to discuss the pharmaceutical industry’s misuse of the U.S. patent system—and what it costs American patients and taxpayers.

They dive into I-MAK’s new report, Overpatented, Overpriced, and explore:

• How drugs like Eliquis and Ozempic are protected by dozens to hundreds of patents
• The role of patent term extensions, follow-on patents, and settlement deals in delaying generic competition
• How companies like Novo Nordisk and BMS generate tens of billions in additional revenue through strategic patenting
• Why the Hatch-Waxman Act and USPTO are failing to protect patients and the public interest

 Full report: https://www.i-mak.org/overpatented/

What happens when one company dominates every aspect of an industry—from venues and ticketing to artist access and local politics? In this in-depth interview, The Capitol Forum’s Teddy Downey speaks with Tommy Dorfman, former promoter and now CEO of Juice Entertainment, about his extraordinary 15-year legal battle against Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

Dorfman alleges that Live Nation used anti-competitive tactics—backed by its control of Ticketmaster—to force him out of the industry, block access to artists, and coerce state-run venues. His claims include:

Closed-door threats and pressure to enter a forced partnership

A nationwide pattern of leveraging rebates to inflate ticket prices

Control over municipal venues, artist touring, and even event security

As the U.S. Department of Justice pursues its own case against Live Nation, Dorfman makes a broader argument: that monopolistic control in the live events industry suppresses competition, stifles independent promoters, and ultimately harms artists and consumers alike.

A story of market power, legal resilience, and the changing economics of live music.

Ari Paparo has done it all in digital advertising—from DoubleClick and Google to founding Beeswax and covering the DOJ antitrust trial as an independent analyst.

In this conversation with Capitol Forum Executive Editor Teddy Downey, Ari shares his insider take on:

📌 Google’s ad tech dominance

📌 Why publishers lost control

📌 What the DOJ’s remedies get wrong

📌 The real reason Google is fighting so hard

📌 How ad markets could be reformed—and who might fill the vacuum

Ari walks us through the industry's tangled history and what it would take to create a truly open digital ad market.

In this Capitol Forum podcast, Executive Editor Teddy Downey is joined by Jeremy Furchtgott and Riley Kruse of Baron Public Affairs to unpack the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement shaping RFK Jr.’s vision for Health and Human Services. Drawing from their rigorous influencer analytics and new report, they explore:

The shift from academic experts to social media influencers like Tucker Carlson and Russell Brand

Competing schools of thought inside Maha: Big Pharma vs. Big Food

How elite vs. populist divides shape policy priorities

The strange alliance between conservative “crunchy cons,” libertarians, and techno-optimists

What Maha says about vaccines, SNAP food policy, pharma ad bans, and the future of public health

🔗 Don’t miss this deep dive into the information ecosystem redefining conservative health policy, learn more here: https://thecapitolforum.com/resources/analyzing-maha-influencers-shaping-rfk-jr-s-hhs-agenda/

Is "Abundance" the answer to our housing, energy, and pharma crises—or just neoliberalism in a new outfit?

In this in-depth conversation, Capital Forum’s Teddy Downey sits down with Sandeep Vaheesan of the Open Markets Institute to dissect "Abundance", the much-hyped book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. Sandeep—legal director, historian, and author of Democracy and Power—offers a sweeping critique of the book’s policy proposals and ideological foundations.

We talk about:

📉 Why zoning reform won’t solve the housing crisis

⚡ The overlooked history of public investment in energy

💊 What Abundance misses about Big Pharma and price manipulation

💥 How the book rebrands 1990s-era neoliberalism for 2025

Today on Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with antitrust expert Hal Singer, who argues why AirBnb is violating antitrust laws, and how enforcement could address distortions in the housing and rental markets.

The conversation centers on Singer’s recent article, “The Antitrust Case Against Airbnb,” which analyzes how Airbnb’s “Smart Pricing” algorithm may facilitate price coordination among short-term rental hosts, the broader effects of short-term rental platforms on housing supply and rents, and the challenges regulators face in applying antitrust law to platform-based and AI-driven pricing models.

To learn more about The Capitol Forum click here.

Jonathan Kanter (former DOJ Antitrust) and Martin Gaynor (Carnegie Mellon Professor and former FTC official) join The Capitol Forum to discuss their groundbreaking paper, The Rise of Healthcare Platforms. They explain how companies like UnitedHealth have evolved into sprawling conglomerates—combining insurer, provider, pharmacy, and PBM functions—and why this consolidation threatens both market competition and patient care.

In this podcast episode, experts Hannah Garden-Monheit, formerly at the FTC, Jonathan Kanter, and Max Barangau from The Capitol Forum dissect the complexities of antitrust policy, price fixing, and their impact on inflation. Garden-Monheit reflects on her journey from DOJ trial attorney to the FTC and White House NEC, highlighting challenges in revitalizing antitrust enforcement amid corporate skepticism. The panel scrutinizes controversial price-fixing cases, including algorithm-driven collusion in housing markets and egg pricing schemes, and explores how data-driven monopolization amplifies economic power. A compelling analysis for anyone interested in the crossroads of policy, economics, and technology.

In this special episode, former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter and former U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai talk to Teddy and former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to discuss the recent upheaval at the FTC and its implications for market stability, antitrust enforcement, and the rule of law.

Slaughter describes being abruptly fired from her FTC position, highlighting that this dismissal violates legal protections that prohibit FTC commissioners' removal without cause. She emphasizes that this unprecedented action introduces significant legal uncertainty, potentially undermining ongoing critical FTC cases, such as the lawsuit against pharmaceutical benefit managers accused of inflating insulin prices, and cases involving major corporations like Amazon. This instability challenges market predictability and may affect the enforcement of antitrust laws, consumer protection, and market fairness.

Ambassador Tai reflects on the global perception of U.S. trade policy, particularly during the Trump administration, and stresses the importance of consistent policies for international trust and stability. Tai explains the complexity surrounding tariffs, underscoring the risks associated with unpredictability and disruptions in trade relationships with key partners like the EU, Canada, and Mexico. She points out that inconsistent U.S. actions erode its reputation as a reliable trading partner, thus pushing other nations to depend more heavily on China or each other.

Both express concern over current policy chaos in Washington, implications for the rule of law, and democratic stability. They highlight that market actors like Wall Street typically prefer predictability and clear rules, now compromised by this governmental instability.

We end with worries that politically driven decisions—such as Slaughter’s firing—provide advantages to large corporations, including Big Tech, undermining fair competition and accountability.

I talk to Jonathan Kanter who served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2021 to 2024.

Kanter discusses his experiences at the FTC and DOJ, emphasizing the need for rigorous antitrust enforcement, especially as modern markets have evolved and become dominated by Big Tech.

He highlights the importance of confronting monopolies to protect economic fairness, innovation, democracy, and freedom, and explains how he prioritized impactful cases against major corporations like Google, Apple, Ticketmaster, and others.

Reflecting on his tenure, he stresses adapting antitrust laws to current market realities, warns about the dangers of economic concentration, and expresses the need for support for robust antitrust enforcement to maintain healthy competition and democracy.

Mark Ellis, an American Economic Liberties Project Senior Fellow, discusses his recent paper “Rate of Return Equals Cost of Capital.” In this episode of Second Request, he examines how and why investor-owned utility profit models diverted from their initial design, as well as how much excess returns cost American households. 

Hayden Rooke-Ley is a Health Law and Policy Fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health and a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. In this episode of Second Request, Hayden discusses vertical consolidation in health care markets, UnitedHealth Group’s outsized lead in this trend with Medicare Advantage, and the capitated payment model undergirding this shift.  

Slade Bond, Chair of Cuneo, Gilbert and LaDuca’s Public Policy and Legislative Affairs practice, discusses the evolving landscape of tech policy, discussing the legislative battles, political dynamics, and behind-the-scenes efforts shaping the future of regulation. Slade shares his insights on navigating Congress, the challenges of bipartisan cooperation, the influence of industry lobbying, and what it takes to push meaningful reforms forward.

In this episode, former USDA Senior Advisor for Fair and Competitive Markets Andy Green discusses the Biden administration’s efforts to improve fairness in food markets and what the future may hold for the agency. Green reflects on key USDA rule-makings over the past few years, their impact on agriculture markets—particularly in seeds and poultry—and changes in enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act. Green provides valuable insights into the agency’s progress and the steps he believes are necessary to strengthen competition in the food industry.

In this episode, Seth Bloom, President of Bloom Strategic Counsel and former General Counsel of the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, discusses the congressional outlook on antitrust in 2025. With shifts in antitrust subcommittee leadership this term, he explores what these changes mean for competition policy, the legislative possibilities ahead, and what to expect from Republican-led antitrust efforts. Bloom offers key insights into how Congress may approach antitrust enforcement and reform in the coming year.

In today's episode of Second Request, Executive Editor Teddy Downey sits down with Graham Steele former former Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and current Academic Fellow at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance. They discuss Steele's recent paper Financial Statecraft and explore the role of financial institutions in American foreign policy, and the tradeoffs for regulation of those industries in the U.S.

To learn more about The Capitol Forum click here.

To read Graham Steele's paper Financial Statecraft click here.

In this special edition of Second Request, an exclusive interview with Margrethe Vestager, the former EU Antitrust Chief addressed concerns about a potential shift in U.S.- EU relations with the election of President Donald Trump.

The interview is the first of a regular podcast hosted by Capitol Forum’s new Europe Executive Editor Javier Espinoza that will include some of the biggest names in European policy. Mr. Espinoza, a leading voice in Brussels regulatory coverage, recently joined Capitol Forum after nearly a decade at the Financial Times.