This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.
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Here’s what The Lever published this week:
LEVER DEEP DIVE OF THE WEEKBankification Nation. From tech giants to airlines to health care providers, every company is becoming a bank — and that’s bad news for the rest of us.
LEVER SCOOPS OF THE WEEK
A Climate Leader Could Put Big Oil’s Risky Pipelines Next To Homes, Wildlife. California risks setting a dangerous precedent as states struggle to protect people from the oil industry’s buildout of carbon dioxide pipelines.
Welcome To The Shutdown Circus, Where Everybody Loses. Everyone agrees antics around the spending-bill deadline are nothing but callous political stunts — so why do we agree to be governed like this at all?
Reporting Reality? That’s Partisan Now. For reporting on Trump’s authoritarian tendencies and the master plan to sell our democracy, NewsGuard’s media rating system has deemed us misleadingly liberal.
Private Equity’s New Playground: America’s Schools. Under the guise of championing “school choice,” the new school voucher program will likely divert millions in taxpayer dollars to private equity firms.
Silicon Valley’s 383% APR Side Hustle. Big Tech’s new “earned-wage access” apps are ensnaring workers in borrowing cycles with absurdly high interest rates.
The Robots Have Your Credit Card. It’s never been easier for artificial intelligence to spend your money.
Big Pharma’s Middlemen Are Writing Their Own Rulebook. Pharmacy benefit managers are reportedly concocting a list of voluntary self-reforms amid bipartisan scrutiny over skyrocketing drug prices.
The AI Bubble That Could Burst The Economy. From speculative investments to zero returns, the AI industry is looking a lot like the dot-com bubble.
The “Trump Taj Mahal” And The War On Shareholder Democracy. Decades after he bucked investors in a precedent-setting civil suit, Trump’s financial regulators just made it harder for shareholders to levy lawsuits against public companies.
THIS WEEK ON LEVER PODCASTS
Are You On The FBI’s New Watch List? A new White House memorandum activates 9/11 counterterrorism units against the American public.
Executive Disorder. How state attorneys general are fighting Trump’s authoritarian agenda.
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THIS WEEK’S LEVER DAILY HIGHLIGHTS
Not yet reading Lever Daily? You’re missing out on news like this:
🎮 It’s in the game. Trump’s son-in-law and the Saudi royal family are behind a historic $55 billion purchase that will take video game maker Electronic Arts off the stock market — the largest-ever private equity-backed buyout of a public company. Saudi Arabia’s “public investment” sovereign wealth fund joined private equity giants Silver Lake (TikTok's new owner) and Affinity Partners (founded by Jared Kushner) to buy EA, maker of game franchises like Madden NFL, Battlefield, and The Sims, expanding Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s multibillion-dollar sports and gaming investment empire. Experts say private equity ownership and $20 billion of fresh debt will force EA to double down on profit-maximizing tactics like in-game sales of virtual goods and subscription-based games — which a growing number of lawsuits say encourage addictive behavior in children.
🏘️ The housing duopoly gets pinched. Federal antitrust regulators have sued online home browsing giants Zillow and Redfin over an allegedly illegal “partnership” that involved Redfin signing over its multifamily housing advertising business to Zillow in exchange for $100 million — destroying competition in the one-stop real estate industry. The agency alleges that the two companies entered an agreement that saw Redfin transfer its advertising contracts to Zillow, pull out of the multifamily housing market entirely, and make its sites "effectively a copy of the listings that appear on Zillow’s sites.”
🙊 Public pension, private details. The head of the country’s largest public pension system reassured Wall Street this week that the fund will not share the details of its risky, high-fee private equity deals with pensioners. CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost said that “private markets are called private for a reason” and that California public workers won’t get access to the agreements that invest their retirement money in private equity funds. Even as CalPERS faces a probe over mismanagement concerns, the fund is charging full steam ahead with private equity, which is expanding its foothold in the U.S. retirement market — to the detriment of working Americans’ future.
WE LOVE TO SEE IT
Every week, our paid subscribers receive a newsletter full of policy wins, environmental victories, and social initiatives improving their lives.
A taste of this week’s good news:
- A local news outlet receives a much-needed lending lifeline.
- Trump and Biden seem to finally agree on something.
- Consolidation in the agriculture industry is getting much-needed scrutiny.
- A bold new bill could help break up a health care giant.
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LEVER IN THE NEWS
Common Dreams — The publication featured David Sirota’s analysis of Democrats’ historically unpopular leadership.
The Western News — The publication referenced our reporting on the private political allegiances behind media censorship.
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