Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Institute for Local Self-Reliance National research and policy organization working to fight corporate control and build local power.

Some of our programs also have their own presence on Facebook. See our work on Community Broadband Networks () and Energy Self-Reliant States ().

08/25/2026

SoCal Edison’s failure to act on repeated safety warnings before the deadly Eaton fire exposes a flaw in the investor-owned utility model: because utilities earn shareholder profits on capital investments, they have an incentive to prioritize new infrastructure over routine maintenance. It’s a tragic example of the danger of allowing private utilities to shape the rules meant to govern them — and it demonstrates the need for structural change.

07/27/2026

Big Tech companies are trying to sneak data centers into communities through a familiar Trojan horse: misleading promises about job creation and economic development. But next door to Elon Musk’s Colossus data centers, residents of historically Black neighborhoods in South Memphis describe a very different reality — enormous plumes of pollution, horrible smells, dozens of unpermitted methane gas turbines, heavy construction traffic, and children forced to miss school due to respiratory illnesses. 

The truth is that data centers rarely create long-term local jobs, despite Big Tech’s multimillion-dollar ad campaigns claiming the opposite. On top of that, many states and counties offer enormous tax incentives for data center projects, sacrificing revenue that could otherwise support public infrastructure. By concealing the costs and exaggerating the benefits, tech giants are robbing communities of the agency to make fully informed decisions about their own future.

07/10/2026

The DOJ and 17 states accused three major egg producers of working together to raise prices — and then agreed to settle the case for little more than a slap on the wrist. Not only does the settlement fail to hold these egg producers accountable, it also sends the wrong message to companies across the economy.

This case is just one of many examples showing how dominant corporations manipulate markets. An unsealed FTC complaint revealed that PepsiCo gave Walmart special discounts and blocked other retailers from offering lower prices. The DOJ sued RealPage over an alleged algorithmic pricing scheme that artificially inflated rents across the country. And California is currently suing Amazon for pressuring vendors to raise prices on rival sites like Chewy and Target.

These cases all point to the same structural problems, and they call for structural solutions — not just fines that can be shrugged off as the cost of doing business.

07/01/2026

“This data center would be two miles from the Tar River, our main source of drinking water.”

David Batts, advocate and newly elected Edgecombe County Commissioner, ran with a campaign promise of opposing this $19.2 billion data center. The proposed project would draw millions of gallons of water daily from the Tar River watershed during a state-designated drought.

Batts’ opponent, a four-term incumbent, didn’t take a formal stance on the data center proposal. Voters chose Batts by more than 2 to 1.

06/16/2026

Communities are already feeling the impacts of the data center boom, from air and noise pollution to increasingly strained water and energy systems. But another big risk is often overlooked: What happens when these massive facilities are abandoned?

Find Building Local Power wherever you get your podcasts to hear the full conversation.

05/13/2026

Amazon notoriously charges ridiculous fees and bullies independent sellers on its platform — so why is it allowed to sponsor the Small Business Administration’s ?

05/12/2026

Amazon might not notice a few lost sales, but a small business will definitely notice your support. Shifting spending to local, independent businesses is a meaningful way to keep money in your community and build up alternatives to Amazon’s monopoly.

04/23/2026

Newly unearthed documents expose how Amazon engages in blatant price fixing to make everyday items more expensive, from pet food to eye drops to clothing. The email evidence is overwhelming — and almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg, explains ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell.

04/21/2026

In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission, then led by Joe Biden appointee Lina Khan, along with 17 states, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon. The case, which is scheduled to go to trial next year, alleges that Amazon maintains a monopoly in online retail through an interlocking set of tactics—what the complaint calls “a self-reinforcing cycle of dominance”—that thwart competitors and entrench its grip on the market.

Central to Amazon’s monopoly power, the complaint alleges, are sophisticated AI-driven pricing systems that draw on torrents of real-time data and “can detect any price change virtually anywhere on the internet.”

“Amazon has used these algorithms not only to adjust its own prices in real time, but to monitor how competing retailers’ algorithms react, probe their strategies, and learn how to shape their behavior—including how to induce them to raise their prices,” writes Stacy Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

In the suit, the FTC singled out what it calls Amazon’s ‘anti-discounting’ algorithm, which allegedly worked by immediately matching competitors’ price changes to the penny. When a rival offered a discount, Amazon matched it; when rivals raised prices, Amazon’s algorithm followed. “This denied competing retailers a crucial tactic for luring customers from Amazon,” Mitchell continues. “If other retailers could never offer lower prices, Amazon’s roughly 200 million paying subscribers had little reason to shop elsewhere.”

More insidiously, the lawsuit contends, this strategy rewired how rivals price their products. It taught online retailers’ algorithms that price cuts yielded only thinner margins, not higher sales. Competitors’ algorithms eventually gave up on discounting and instead concluded that raising prices was a more profitable response. In turn, Amazon matched competitors’ price hikes, and prices across markets rose without any direct coordination.

“These allegations point to a novel form of monopoly power: the ability of a dominant platform to use algorithms to lift prices across an entire market,” Mitchell writes.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/20/how-amazons-ai-algorithms-raise-the-prices-you-pay/

03/29/2026

Excessive utility profit rates cost U.S. customers $50 billion per year. Check out our utility bill calculator to find out how much extra you’re paying to line the pockets of utility shareholders.

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