You're Probably Getting Screwed

Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.

With Donald Trump winning, here’s what we (as people who are fighting for an economy that works for everyone, not just the super wealthy), are looking for.

Share

The three things to look for are tariffs, tax cuts and people.

On the campaign trail, Trump loved talking about tariffs. Who is going to pay for those tariffs? You are. According to this reputable think tank, the average family will be paying between $2,600 to $4,000 more per year. 

And proposed tariffs alone would reduce American consumers’ spending power by $46 to $78 billion every year the tariffs are in place.

Second, expect more tax cuts for huge corporations and the super wealthy. And similar to the 2017 tax cuts, it will be permanent for them while the middle class are, at best, temporary.

This will lead to, like last time, more mergers which means less competition and probably more jacked up prices… for you.

More mergers also means more concentration in the economy which leads to a more vulnerable economy. Remember the baby formula shortage?

And lastly, people. Who will he put in different positions of power? Will Elon Musk be able to tank the economy, like he mentioned?

What happens to our populist heroes like Jonathon Kanter in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice? Or the Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan? And what happens to their work of taking on things like Big Tech and Big Pharma?

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Elon Musk

Last week the Big Tech billionaire that helped bankroll the Trump Campaign joined the chorus of rich dudes calling for the end of Lina Khan’s tenure chairing the Federal Trade Commission and sadly he will likely now get his wish.   

Wall Street & Silicon Valley

Executives and mouthpieces for finance and Big Tech have been complaining for the past several years about Biden Administration antitrust enforcement and now seem giddy about the possibility that President-elect Trump will allow a merger frenzy to ensue. 

Billionaires

Speaking of those executives, Wednesday saw huge gains on Wall Street in anticipation of a pro-monopoly agenda from Trump. That made the 10 richest people in the world $64 billion richer and generated the largest daily increase of wealth ever in the “Billionaire Index” that Bloomberg News has maintained since 2012. 

SOME GOOD NEWS:

Red State Voters Support Higher Wages

Voters in Alaska and Missouri voted for ballot measures to raise the minimum wage on Tuesday and Arizona overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed for a lower minimum wage for tipped workers.

Strong Showing for Populist Candidates

While it wasn’t enough for many of them to win, a variety of Senate Democrats that ran populist campaigns, and independent Dan Osborn, outperformed the top of the ticket. 

FTC Still Working

What happens to the Federal Trade Commission under Trump remains to be seen, but for now with the leadership of Chair Lina Khan the agency continues to work on protecting Americans from scammers and monopolists. 

Just this week the FTC halted a debt collection operation that harassed consumers, returned $17 million in junk fees to consumers from hard-to-cancel subscriptions, sued a cash advance lender (Dave) for charging hidden fees and announced action against Sitejabber, an AI-enable review platform for generating deceptive reviews.  

BEFORE YOU GO

Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.

Standing Tall for All, 

J.D. Scholten