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Welcome to Wall Street/Corporate America. It's where you don't have to make anything or provide any actual services. You just have to find a better way to grift. There are hopeful signs that the FTC (under the amazing Lina Khan) and the DOJ Antitrust Division are finally going after these big corporate grifters. I'm hoping that at some point Corp CEOs might have to actually work for a living - preferable after a prison stint. I know its unlikely but unlikely things seem to be happening now so there's room to dream big.

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founding

Your first two sentences nail the issue! All the billionaires offering to support Kamala Harris give the caveat, we'll give you many millions if you promise to fire Lina Khan. Biden had total non-cooperation from Republicans when presenting her for nomination. Their values are very clear!

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Yup

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And this is what we have to be ever vigilant about: The corporations own the Republicans. The corporations also own a good chunk of The Democrats, via the neoliberal corporate Democrats who held sway during the Clinton and Obama administrations and who are highly pissed about Lina Khan, Jonathan Canter, and - helping us from a different direction - at the Department of Labor, Julie Su. The donor class of the Democratic Party hate these people and want their scalps. They want them gone.

The Democrats today are pretty good on social/identity issues, but a living wage? Fuggedaboutit. Same with anything that could be seen as a logical extrapolation of the New Deal. For any of that you have to look at Bernie, Warren, and their allies. The suburban professional Brie & chardonnay Democrats, who are oh so pro-choice, gay, trans, and whatever other identity issue you can think of, will bolt the Democratic Party in a New York minute after those goals are achieved rather than see their taxes go up a nickel.

Great comment Becky!

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I believe we are witnessing a rebirth of the dem party. Joe Biden, with Kamala Harris and his phenomenal administration (many of whom had worked for E. Warren) set the stage. They have been working to dismantle the neoliberal order and replace it with a bottom up middle out approach to rebuilding our economy and our democracy. Harris and Walz sure show signs of supporting this mission. I am dreaming big that they will continue the mission and see it through. And then we can never stop fighting. They won't.

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Don’t forget the hotels are providing less service now under the guise of Covid restrictions- you still have to arrange for things like overnight room cleanings that used to happen automatically. The hotels are still charging the customer the same rates or more but hiring less staff .

Speaking of staff…

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The few union jobs that existed are being dissolved. Even here in NYC (after COVID decimated the hotel industry) now that we are back up and running, the corporate giants have figured out ways to limit the amount of unionized hotel jobs. The all got their PPP loans during the pandemic (which do not have to be repaid), while the rest of us (my husband) had to wait on hold for hours to get unemployment checks that were barely enough to live on. Then his hotel never reopened. As far as I know the owner of this luxury hotel did not have to pay back his PPP loan after filing for bankruptcy, either. Judd, most of those Atlantic city hotels are Local 6 staffed hotels and casinos. Those are supposed to still be good paying jobs with health benefits and a pension. But collusion is not a good business model.

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founding

What a wonderfully detailed investigation! Thank you, Judd, we need details if we are to criticize price gouging, and not just repetitive words of complaint. Here's another group of purely greedy corporations who do not care about the peope they serve or those on whom they depend to become rich, and richer. We can be sure that Trump was always finding ways to get "optimal" prices to charge customers--he did best when Saudi's (who have so much money that they never worry about getting a bargain) were the customers.

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I recently heard a "cute" story on, I think, NPR as to how motels are back in fashion. Putting the spin that quaintness and parking convenience were driving this feeling for nostalgia, I thought, that's fishy. And now with this story I see where the smell is coming from.

Here is real evidence of corporate greed and malfeasance is making everything more pricey. I hope the courts see it that way.

Keep on this story.

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And now t hey charge for parking and everything "quaint ". So sick of everyone and their flipping greed

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Judd, you - and we - just don't get it! Colluding and price gouging are things rhe corporations are *OBLIGATED* to do, because, thanks to decades of hard work by ALEC the sole purpose of the corporation is to generate profit. We are seeing the consequences of Capitalism in its purist form, as service to the community tends to zero while profits approach infinity.

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This could be the beginning of a sea change. The connection to rental rates is glaring.

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BRILLIANT reporting — AGAIN!!

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founding
Aug 13·edited Aug 13

But Republicans are against government intervention and regulation. Don't any of them rent or stay in hotels? They are shooting themselves in the foot.

Nice reporting PI!

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Thank you Judd again, for another informative report that provides us with, " the rest of the story."

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Imagine a world where every item you buy is price optimized by data collecting and algorithm creating proprietary software. AKA AI.

While the Sherman Act may stop third party providers, there is nothing preventing large corporations from using proprietary AI to acheive at least close to the same results.

A collusion by any other name...

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Way to go, Judd! For your next assignment ;) get Kamala Harris publicly on board to continue and amplify Biden's anti-trust campaign and to keep Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter in their posts. Biden has done well, but he hasn't explained to the public what monopoly costs families or what his campaign has achieved.

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The voters need to understand how much of the inflation that bothers us is due to interventions like The Fed setting interest rates - and how much is due to skyrocketing CORPORATE PROFITS.

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Damn straight! Excellent suggestion.

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I tried to book 1 night in Milwaukee this month and the hotel rates have doubled. I was in shock. I gave up and just drove back home to Chicago

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DOJ Antitrust Division is doing the correct thing. The bringing of a lawsuit has defeated the algorithm's most important feature. That feature is that it was secret, no guest knew it was being used to scam them. Now the secret is out, the effectiveness of the algorithm will began to degrade. Good Job Lina Khan!!!

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This is where the "free market" breaks down. Just as national and global markets wouldn't exist without the U.S. government backing the dollar and providing stability (and pursuing counterfeiters), there are many areas where making a market more "free" from government regulation makes regular people less free as the wealthy collude to restrict products and services for their own profit and that of their shareholders.

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Capitalism

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Your ever so great grandfather Adam Smith would say, "No, this is definitely not capitalism. One of the three underpinnings of capitalism is a fully informed public."

That being said, it follows that, seeing how the purpose of advertising is to misinform, then "capitalism" here is and has been for generations as unworthy of the name as the USSR's "socialism" was of what Marx and Engel advocated.

To quote Stella Dallas: "Cripes, Lolly Baby, we've been had."

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Wow just wow. It's never enough is it... as always thank you...AA has nothing like these groups GG greed over good...very "pollyanna" of me but geesh

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