What was the movie of 2025? According to our critic A.A. Dowd, it was Sinners and it's not even close. Yet Hollywood's power brokers tried to downplay it, maybe because Black directors and stars are still considered "risky" bets in the movie biz, against all evidence.
prospect.org/2025/12/11/s...
The Hit Hollywood Didn’t Want ...
A for-profit education firm called Stride is opening a school inside a for-profit immigration prison run by CoreCivic. Stride has been accused of defrauding investors and providing substandard education to children.
@whitneycwimbish.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy spotted the job listings:
prospect.org/2025/12/10/f...
For-Profit School Opening in F...
We review Tim Wu's The Age of Extraction, about how everything online has been designed to take from us. From Rhoda Feng, who writes that "In the digital age, the tollbooth has been reborn in algorithmic form."
prospect.org/2025/12/10/i...
The Internet’s Tollbooth Opera...
First BlackRock in Minnesota. Now Blackstone, the world's largest private equity firm, is buying a utility based in New Mexico. Blackstone also runs data centers in the state, and critics believe it will leverage its utility ownership to benefit those investments. James Baratta reports:
Private Equity’s Utility Spend...
Warner Bros. has accumulated $53 billion in debt from four failed mergers. Its CEO will "earn" a $500 million payday if the company sells itself.
And lurking over all of this is an attempt to roll back the clock to a time of Hollywood's vertical integration era:
prospect.org/2025/12/10/w...
https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nztbvvo2gl4227zuxjf7gog3&cid=bafkreigmke6gpwofxxixtwoq23tziiupkt6wg7pthsrxmugpeevge2jtxeSeven straight Warner Bros. pictures earned over $40 million on their opening weekends. Warner Bros. led the Golden Globes noms. It's having one of the best years critically and financially in its history.
Why is it auctioning itself off?
The answer explains a lot about the modern economy.
Why Is Warner Bros. for Sale a...
Instacart prices vary by 20% or more depending on the customer, despite buying the same item from the same store at the same time.
Instacart admits that customers are subject to "pricing tests."
Surveillance pricing is so much more pervasive than we know.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/b...
Same Product, Same Store, but ...
There's a second front in the conservative war on the Department of Veterans Affairs. In addition to privatizing health care, Trump is now taking aim at veterans’ disability benefits, which serves 7 million Americans. Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon report.
prospect.org/2025/12/08/t...
Trump Is Coming for Veterans’ ...
Here's who has come out against the Netflix/Warner Bros. deal:
-Writers Guild
-Directors Guild
-SAG-AFTRA
-documentary filmmakers
-theater owners
So all of Hollywood.
They aren't opposing this because they secretly want a Paramount merger, it's because the deal will harm their livelihoods.
But states have a key tool to do something about this. They can use their unfair and deceptive practices laws to say that you can't trap people at the concession stand.
prospect.org/2025/12/05/t...
https://amanita.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:nztbvvo2gl4227zuxjf7gog3&cid=bafkreigdkp7yqpfkpx7ibosjaws7ms5nlqypt2juxtt552o7g6choekx54