An RDP Love Letter To Picking Fights and Good Punditry

Cracking down on corporate abuses is what government should be for.

Julian Scoffield, Vishal Shankar, Revolving Door Project, and Ethan Cook

Feb 15, 2024

Show Voters You Love Them By Fighting by Julian Scoffield:

Good afternoon and happy (belated) Valentine’s Day to you all! There’s nothing that we love at RDP more than a good fight against the individuals and organizations that profit at the public’s expense. As such, we have regularly advocated for the Biden administration to likewise demonstrate our passion for feuding with corporate villains.

Embracing a corporate crackdown is good policy on its own, but would prove to be especially powerful during an election year where public pessimism about the economy is pervasive. Nothing says “vote for me, I have your back” like loudly naming, shaming, and reprimanding big businesses whose operations continue to negatively impact the lives of everyday Americans.

Take rent for example, a financial strain that tens of millions of us struggle with every month. That burden is heavy in no small part due to companies like RealPage, a business that markets itself as “provide[ing] data analytics, property management software, and services to efficiently manage rental properties and real estate.” What that means in reality, as ProPublica detailed in a report last year, is that RealPage acts as a facilitator for collusion among corporate landlords to raise rents and price gouge. The company’s chief economist Jay Parsons said as much at a 2022 conference where he boasted about RealPage’s Yieldstar rent pricing algorithm’s effectiveness: “Never before have we seen these numbers.” Parson’s statements were then followed up by a colleague who, citing apartment rents increasing by “as much as 14.5 percent,” declared, “I think [Yieldstar] is driving it, quite honestly.”

Parson’s and RealPage would be ideal candidates for a Kamala Harris-led crackdown as part of a Biden administration-wide push to ameliorate undue burdens on the poor, working, and middle classes. My colleague Emma Marsano outlined how this scenario could play out in her recent piece for The New Republic:

“Picture the scene: Vice President Kamala Harris stands in front of an array of microphones outside the headquarters of a technology company freshly indicted for driving up rental prices. A crowd of reporters clamor for her attention [and] Harris leans into the moment, calling out the corporation’s greed in extracting excessive profits from renters who are just trying to afford housing. The corporation’s famously snippy chief economist hits back all week, shooting off fiery tweets criticizing the V.P., and giving interviews on CNBC. The story dominates the news cycle for days, with the media opining on whether Harris was doing her job to protect her constituents or overstepping her role and calling out entrepreneurial tech executives too harshly [...] With the express support of executive branch leadership as cover, regulators at various federal agencies [from the Department Of Justice Antitrust Division to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Trade Commission] would be well positioned to continue work that supports renters.”

This scenario, while imagined, is not far-fetched at all. ProPublica’s reporting has already activated both a DOJ investigation and numerous tenant lawsuits, including a class action case with DOJ support. Likewise RealPage has since begun actively proclaiming its innocence and pushing back on allegations that its products have helped fuel the housing affordability crisis. The only piece missing from turning our hopes to reality is the express antagonism of Biden administration spokespeople. RealPage is ready to be drawn into a juicy fight—we just need willing instigators!

While it’s disappointing that the most visible figures of the executive branch—-most prominently the President and Vice President themselves—-have yet to fully embrace this opportunity to bully corporate wrongdoers at RealPage, it's encouraging to see that much of the actual hard work is already underway. And that’s the case not just in the realm of housing affordability, but in other arenas where corporate malfeasance is rampant. Rohit Chopra and his fellow regulators at the CFPB, for example, have been steadily making good on Biden’s promises to eliminate junk fees, as evidenced most recently by a rule proposed earlier this month to rein in bank overdraft fees. Likewise Lina Khan and her team at the FTC—despite what pro-business hacks want you to think—have been quite successful in giving teeth to Biden’s efforts to promote competition through reinvigorated antitrust regulation.

Sadly, however, the pushback on Chopra and Khan has been vicious within the Beltway and business elites but subtle beyond those influential but finite universes. These useful fights need a sprinkle of Biden or Harris’ direct involvement in order to become more broadly known.

However, there are still areas where more substantive work needs to be done in addition to better stagecraft. One glaring example is extending labor protections to those working in the ever-expanding gig economy. For far too long, companies like Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have been able to increase their market share, brand recognition, and lobbying power by reclassifying their workforce as independent contractors. This cynical move has led to abysmal working conditions for those employed by these firms, many of whom went on strike yesterday in protest of said conditions. Despite having all been operating for at least a decade at this point, these firms still struggle to turn a profit. Uber, for example, recorded its first ever annual operating profit as a limited company just last year, while DoorDash and Lyft remain unable to do so. To put it simply, these companies could not stand as viable businesses without flouting labor law. “Union Joe’s” bonafides as a champion of the working class could and should be questioned if his administration as a whole, and Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su more specifically, are unwilling to rein in the power of tech companies whose only real innovative action has been the reinvention of piece work through regulatory arbitrage.

Across the executive branch, regulators are proving their love for the public good by ruffling the feathers of corporate America. It’s time for Biden and Harris to do more to publicly support these efforts, turning the strongest points of their executive branch regulatory regime into populist talking points to rally the support of rightfully disgruntled voters.

A (Belated) Valentine’s Message From Hack Watch by Vishal Shankar & Ethan Cook:

In (belated) honor of Valentine’s Day, the Hack Watch team has taken a break from hack-bashing this week to spread some love. Below are a few journalists and media critics who hold a special place in our hearts.

The Column/Citations Needed: Journalists Adam Johnson and Sarah Lazare run The Column newsletter, which has done a terrific job calling out the corporate media’s warped coverage of immigration policy, labor strikes, Social Security, debt ceiling austerity politics, U.S. foreign policy, and more. Equally insightful is the podcast Johnson co-hosts with Nima Shirazi, Citations Needed. The podcast skewers the media’s softball treatment of some of our least favorite individuals, from self-proclaimed “effective altruists” to cryptocurrency boosters to abusive corporate executives.

Dan Froomkin’s Press Watch: Longtime media accountability watchdog Dan Froomkin has staged a much-needed intervention for political journalism on his website Press Watch, calling out corporate coverage that “considers elitist conventional wisdom to be objective, and is out of touch with the rest of America.” Recent highlights include blasting the Washington Post’s downplaying of Trump’s dictatorial dreams, excoriating MSNBC for canceling Mehdi Hasan, and proposing much-needed changes to the New York Times’ style guide.

Jeet Heer: Whether on Twitter or in the pages of The Nation, it’s always a treat to read Jeet. Check out his recent columns on Leonard Leo’s takeover of the courts, Pete Buttigieg’s refusal to regulate the airline industry, and Larry Summers’ repeated failed predictions.

Bryce Covert: Another stellar voice at The Nation, Bryce Covert has penned some excellent pieces on the IRS direct-file pilot program, the ongoing eviction crisis, and model public servants NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and FTC Chair Lina Khan.

Perry Bacon Jr.: A rare voice of reason at The Washington Post’s opinion section, Perry Bacon Jr. looks beyond the confines of horse-race political journalism to ask insightful questions about moral policy-making (highlights include his columns on immigration, policing, and foreign policy) and the state of political reporting.

Lindsay Owens: Owens and her brilliant team at the Groundwork Collaborative were one of the earliest voices warning that corporate profiteering and monopoly power (rather than fiscal stimulus) were driving inflation, and painful interest rate hikes were not the solution. Subscribers to our newsletter (especially a certain former Treasury Secretary) should read Groundwork’s well-researched reports on “greedflation”.

Pablo Manriquez: A refreshingly honest reporter (and remarkably talented oil painter), Manriquez embodies what journalism should do: comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable (see his pieces on Susan Rice, Samuel Alito, and Wall Street-bankrolled Republicans, among others). Subscribe to his newly-launched newsletter Capitol.press, which emphasizes the human stakes of immigration policy at a time when both parties are scapegoating and demonizing vulnerable people.

Paris Marx: In both their Tech Won’t Save Us podcast (a partner of The Nation) and Disconnect newsletter, Marx relentlessly dismantles Big Tech mythologies spewed by the Silicon Valley billionaires shelling out futuristic snake-oil. We recommend their scathing critiques of AI gurus Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen, and listening to their many Elon Musk takedowns,like the history of SpaceX skirting regulations.

Michael Tomasky: Formerly at The Daily Beast, Tomasky has penned some great pieces at The New Republic since taking over as TNR’s editor in 2021, including calls for Democrats to fight the pernicious influence of monopoly power and to name and shame corporate villains. Longtime RDP readers will know that a call for corporate crackdown is our love language.

Jamelle Bouie: An NYT columnist since 2019 (and perhaps the best TikToker on this list), Bouie is unique in his analysis of contemporary politics through a historical lens; check out his recent column chronicling the history of state secession in response to one of Nikki Haley’s many ahistorical comments.

Rick Perlstein’s The Infernal Triangle: Historian Rick Perlstein (who you may know from his books detailing the influence of past Republican presidents) has recently launched The Infernal Triangle, a weekly column published by our good friends at The American Prospect. His inaugural issue and recent two-parter on political journalism’s “stubborn adherence to outdated frames” are masterclasses in media accountability.

Did we miss anyone (apologies for breaking your heart)? Let us know which political writers you love reading.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this newsletter misidentified Jay Parsons as RealPage's CEO. He is their chief economist.

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