Last year, a court suspended the FTC’s "click to cancel" rule, which required quitting a service to be as easy as signing up. Within months, Sirius XM executives were on an earnings call telling investors this would help them keep subscribers. Between 2002 and 2024, the length of time the average customer stayed with a company jumped from 7.5 years to 11.5 years, a 50% surge in loyalty. Customer satisfaction didn't come anywhere close to keeping pace. New @StiglerCenter research in ProMarket says that gap has an explanation, and it isn't that companies got better. It's that leaving got harder. promarket.org/2026/09/04/ame…

Is American capitalism an engine of oligarchy, or an engine of democracy? The official who formerly oversaw antitrust policy at the Justice Department put the question to our panel two weeks after leaving the job. From a panel on competition policy, productivity, and innovation at the 2026 Stigler Center Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇

RT @StiglerCenter: Hiring: Research Professional at the @StiglerCenter, @ChicagoBooth. The question underneath most of our research: why d…

Is the workplace a dictatorship? Elizabeth Anderson on the latest Capitalisn't podcast 👇

Wealth Buys Power, but Americans Are Focused on the Wrong Wealthy promarket.org/2026/09/23/wea… via @ProMarket_org

Musk was at the peak of his access to this administration when Tesla lost the EV tax credits. But car dealers got their pass-through tax cut made permanent. If Congress belongs to billionaires, how did that happen? Full Capitalisn't podcast below with Eric Zwick on his new book w/ @omzidar "The Everywhere Millionaire"👇

Research finds that public officials in states with a lot of corruption exploit their administrative discretion to delay or reject Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by roughly 30% in the run-up to elections. In @ProMarket_org, authors @RFisman, Aron Malatinszky, and Eyüb Yegen, show that when public records are most valuable to voters, they are most aggressively suppressed by officials facing political risk. promarket.org/2026/08/13/sta…

Productivity growth matters. The problem, an @NYUStern economist argues, is that we barely know how to measure it. The strongest quarter for productivity growth, @conlon_chris notes, was the second quarter of 2020, when much of the country was working from home in sweats with kids on Zoom. From a panel on competition policy, productivity, and innovation at the 2026 Stigler Center Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇

"Why didn't you go after the car dealers?" Economist Eric Zwick asked a former FTC official exactly that. The answer: individually they're not big enough to be worth the fight compared to Amazon. Even though, according to Zwick, the dealers may be doing more damage from a consumer welfare perspective. Full Capitalisn’t podcast on Zwick’s new book "The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There" with @zingales & @bethanymac12 below 👇

Will wealth taxes actually accomplish their goals? From a panel on taxes at the 2026 Stigler Center Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇

The war economy and Operation Warp Speed. Why is the state able to act efficiently during these times but not others? What these moments share is the threat of annihilation. When people believe they may not survive, the political economy disappears, and government becomes remarkably competent. The question we debated with @MazzucatoM is how to get those outcomes without those incentives. Listen to our full conversation on Capitalisn't here: piped.video/watch?v=N9KlofuS…

For every member of the Forbes 400, there are more than 4,000 private business owners worth at least $10 million. You probably have never heard of any of them. They own the beer distributorship in your town, the dental group with four offices, the HVAC trucks that passed your house this morning. Economists Eric Zwick & @omzidar went into anonymized IRS data to find them, but it’s hard to tell if what came back is good or bad news for American capitalism. We discuss their new book "The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There", on the latest Capitalisn’t podcast. Full episode below 👇

Two companies, one federal loan program. Solyndra went bankrupt and taxpayers covered it. Tesla repaid and the gains went private. Economist @MazzucatoM argues the problem isn't that government picked a loser, it's that the deals were written so the public could only ever absorb losses, never share in returns. Listen to the latest episode of Capitalisn’t about Mazzucato’s new book “The Common Good Economy: A New Compass” below 👇

@UChicago law professor David Weisbach and co-authors reviewed every study of tax progressivity and redistribution from the past 15 years. What they found may surprise you. From a panel on taxes at the 2026 Stigler Center Annual Conference. Watch the full panel below 👇