The Open Markets Institute Team wishes you a happy holiday season! We know a lot of you will be taking advantage of these quiet cold days to catch up on your reading. Obviously, we hope this will include some time with Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Our team is proud to have supported this important new history of how Americans debated economics in the 20th Century. But many other works also inspired us over the last year, and we hope you’ll have the time to read a few of them. 

MUST READS

• BOOK: Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America by Christopher Leonard

“In telling the story of how America’s second-richest family got that way, Chris provides the single best description of how our nation’s economy was corrupted by bogus ideologies and big money, and the damages that resulted. Kochland provides reformers with an almost perfect list of what laws we need to change to rebuild American capitalism for the people.”

—Barry Lynn

• BOOK:  Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality by Katharina Pistor

“Her book explains in careful detail how numerous legal choices–often made with little or no democratic input–created our present conditions of inequality, poverty, and powerlessness.” —Sandeep Vaheesan

• BOOK: Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food by Timothy A. Wise

“Timothy Wise fully busts the myth that corporate-driven industrial agriculture is necessary to ‘feed the world.’ His book makes a powerful case that a sustainable food future requires removing agribusiness influence over agriculture policies and balancing power towards smallholder and family farmers.” 

—Claire Kelloway

• FEATURE: “Insulin Should Be Free. Yes, Free.” by Merril Goozner for Democracy Journal

“Merril Goozner’s piece is a solid indictment against America’s insulin cartel which has left millions of Americans unable to afford the drug they need. His in-depth feature is the most powerful and infuriating example of everything wrong with prescription drugs in America and more impetus for us to press our lawmakers to restructure our markets to serve people not profits.”

—Phil Longman

• SERIES: The Privacy Project by The New York Times

“The New York Times’ Privacy Project is a much-needed deep dive into how surveillance invisibly pervades every aspect of our lives, endangering democracy. By exposing how surveillance giants are abusing their monopoly power to invade our privacy, the reporting lays the foundation for the convergence of privacy and antitrust.”

—Sally Hubbard

• INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: Isaac Arnsdorfon for ProPublica 

“Arnsdorfon’s reporting on discrimination against black poultry farmers, increased processing line speeds, and the Trump administration’s burying of GIPSA farmer protections is an absolute must-read.” 

—Claire Kelloway

• INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: Sludge’s Coverage on Big Pharma and Big Health’s Money in Politics

“Sludge has been following the money. Their reporting is damning coverage of how Big Pharma and Big Health influence our politics.”

—Stella Roque

MUST WATCH

• EXPOSE: Why Amazon Fires Keep Raging 10 Years After a Deal to End Them on The New York Times

“This story exposes the connection between multinational beef packers, failed policy, and fires in the Amazon.”

—Claire Kelloway

• CARTOON: South Park Season 23, Ep. 2 – Band in China

“A brilliant take on how America’s biggest corporations are falling under the political sway of Beijing, and the resulting threat to our democracy.”

—Barry Lynn