Weekly Rewind: 1/9/26
Mamdani EOs Target Junk Fees and Subscription Traps, and more.
By Kainoa Lowman and Katie Hettinga
Welcome back to the The Economic Populist’s Weekly Rewind. Every Friday, we’ll briefly recap the week’s biggest news, updates, and developments in the fight against corporate power.
Here’s what to know this week
Mamdani EOs Target Junk Fees and Subscription Traps
On Monday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed a pair of executive orders directing the New York Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) to prioritize investigations of, and pursue enforcement actions against, deceptive “junk fee” pricing and “subscription traps” (where companies make it hard to cancel an online subscription).
Economic Populist readers will recognize in these initiatives the influence of former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who co-chaired Mamdani’s transition. Khan’s FTC pioneered regulations to ban these scammy business practices before the Trump Administration abandoned them; several states, and now New York City, are picking up the slack. Samuel Levine, the FTC consumer protection chief under Khan, is implementing New York City’s effort as the new commissioner of the DCWP.
Mamdani’s executive orders—coming on the fifth day of his term as mayor—are a big early step towards fulfilling his campaign pledge to bring costs down for New Yorkers. Junk fees cost the average American family more than $3,000 per year by some estimates, while subscription traps are a costly and infuriating business strategy that has become all too familiar to consumers.
The DCWP has “broad powers under the New York City Consumer Protection Law to police deceptive and unconscionable trade practices,” as law firm DLA Piper put it in an advisory. The Mamdani administration said New York businesses should reform their business practices in anticipation of strong enforcement. In a press conference, Levine warned: “Do not wait for a subpoena.”
Venezuela Operation Delivers for the Oligarchy, not America
Trump’s incursion into Venezuela last week added a military angle to what is shaping up to be the president’s signature commercial policy: Oligarchs first, not America first.
Trump’s so-called ‘Donroe Doctrine’ is a transparently corporate-profit-snatch-and-grab use of the U.S. government’s official powers. The White House now has plans to control oil production in Venezuela indefinitely, and Trump is obsessed with a forced acquisition of Greenland —possibly to own the country’s rare earth minerals, given the U.S. government already has broad access and a large military base there.
Lest anyone thinks the military action in Venezuela is about stopping the flow of illegal drugs, as the White House claimed, again, you need to remember that Trump continues to talk about the United States permanently controlling Venezuela’s oil. Moreover, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump hinted at action in Venezuela to oil executives weeks before the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Ironically, oil companies are hesitant to reenter the country. Instead, the most likely winner of any oil infrastructure rebuilding would be billionaire Paul Singer, a frequent donor to Trump who purchased Venezuela-linked oil assets a mere two months ago, in November 2025.
After riding to a second term in the White House with MAGA promises to rebalance American trade, rebuild American industry, and create middle-class manufacturing jobs — and an inaugural address commitment to stop all wars — Trump is showing where his priorities really lie. The question now is at what point MAGA voters realize the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, a bigger trade deficit, a boom in corporate mergers, and endless wars are the administration’s policy, not the false promises made on the campaign trail.
Trump Floats Banning Investor Ownership of Single Family Homes
On Wednesday, President Trump said on Truth Social that he was “taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes.”
Contrary to the claims of neoliberal policy advocates, preventing institutional investors from owning single-family homes would be a good idea. The share of home purchases made by investors has surged: from about 14% in 2020 to 33% in the second quarter of 2025. Investor ownership is over-represented in several regional markets, including Atlanta and Phoenix. Moreover, as Research Manager Laurel Kilgour wrote in a November 2025 white paper, single-family homes are increasingly “built-for-rent,” or built for sale to institutional investors rather than individual homebuyers.
Whether Trump actually follows through on the proposal in a meaningful way is a separate question. As the Wall Street Journal put it, “it isn’t clear if Trump can carry out such a ban without congressional approval, and big investors would still be able to hold on to their hundreds of thousands of existing homes.” We would add that it’s also unclear whether Trump has the will to carry out such a proposal, with or without Congress, given his long record of broken affordability promises. Trump DOJ’s decision this week to wave through a merger of the nation’s two biggest residential brokerages—over the concerns of DOJ career staff—suggests that this time will be no exception. Additionally, as the Lever reported, Trump has a long track record of taking donations from top corporate landlords.
Quick Hits
New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating Instacart following new evidence that it personalizes prices on grocery products. The company acquired an AI firm in 2022, which tests customer price sensitivity to determine the most they are willing to pay for items, a phenomenon we have long warned about: “surveillance” pricing.
President Trump said on Wednesday he would “not permit” defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until they increased investment and production, without elaborating on how he might enact the ban. The same day, he proposed $600 billion increase to the military budget.
A new empirical study attributes 42% of America’s democratic erosion since 1995 to growing corporate market power.
The House held a hearing on the Netflix-Warner Bros acquisition. Check out highlight clips from Rep. Becca Balint, Rep. Jerry Nadler, and expert witness Matt Wood of Free Press.
Hunterbrook Media released a massive investigation into how vertically-integrated pharmacy benefit managers divert billions of dollars away from health plans and patients, featuring Sr. Policy Analyst Emma Freer.
Bank overdraft fee revenue is rising since the Trump administration abandoned a rule by Rohit Chopra’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rein them in.
Senior Legal Fellow Katherine Van Dyck features in a new Washington Post report on how private equity is driving the surging cost of participating in youth sports.
Managing Editor Helaine Olen went on MS Now to discuss Trump’s similarities to wealth gurus and why this portends nothing good when it comes to addressing the affordability crisis.
ICYMI: Senior Fellow Bill McGee on Sean Duffy’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad first year as head of the DOT.
"The question now is at what point MAGA voters realize the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, a bigger trade deficit, a boom in corporate mergers, and endless wars are the administration’s policy, not the false promises made on the campaign trail."
ANSWER: Never. The administration will blame someone else. MAGA voters are easily swayed by the lies. The Democrats have no organized response. They need to clear out the old guard.