Weekly Rewind: 2/27/26
Following Bidding War, a New Antitrust State of Play for Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal, 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.
Following Bidding War, a New Antitrust State of Play for Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal
On Thursday, Netflix announced it would not match Paramount-Skydance’s latest bid to acquire Warner Bros-Discovery, not only putting an end to an epic bidding war, but ending it in a way with massive and disastrous implications for the entertainment industry and American Democracy.
Paramount-WBD, by combining two of the five remaining legacy Hollywood studios, will reduce film and television output and almost certainly make it even harder for creatives and production crews to make a living. It will also almost certainly lead to rounds of layoffs as Paramount is racking up huge amounts of debt to make this merger a reality.
Moreover, Paramount CEO David Ellison reportedly promised Trump administration officials that he would make sweeping changes at CNN in an effort to gain the president’s support for the deal, and, in turn, Trump made it clear his administration would look more favorably on a merger with Paramount than one with Netflix. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Netflix dropped out of the running the same day Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos met with administration officials at the White House.
This is not how a functioning, honest democracy is supposed to operate. It is how a corrupt oligarchy functions.
We should not accept this deal as inevitable, no matter how much the Trump administration and some media outlets are portraying it as such. State attorneys general can still act to block the merger. Encouragingly, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said yesterday that Paramount-WBD is “not a done deal,” and that his office “intend[s] to be vigorous in our review.” (David Dayen of the American Prospect laid out state AGs’ best legal options.) Private plaintiffs could also sue to block the deal. And popular outrage could lead to real support for Sen. Ruben Gallego’s proposal for action to unwind all mergers approved by the Trump administration, or for a proposal from a group of Democratic Senators to investigate the deal. Expect more from us on this fast-evolving situation in the coming weeks.
Trade Policy Wasn’t a Winner in the State of the Union
Trump’s talk on trade policy in his Tuesday State of the Union address was unexpectedly subdued. His shift in messaging, from lauding tariffs as his “favorite word” to dedicating only three paragraphs in his record-breaking-in-length address to trade, may be connected to disappointing trade policy outcomes, of which the Supreme Court ruling against his ability to use emergency powers to impose tariffs was just the latest.
On the campaign trail and on “Liberation Day” last year, Trump promised tariffs would rebalance trade and bring jobs and factories “roaring back into our country.” But that’s not what happened. The U.S. manufacturing trade deficit increased by $62 billion in 2025 from the year prior, while 88,000 American manufacturing jobs were lost. Capital goods purchases and manufacturing construction investment also fell.
The disconnect between promises and outcomes, however, did not quell Trump’s penchant for repeating unsupportable and dubious claims. So, to set the record straight, let’s be clear about a few things.
No, record stock market valuations are not due to Trump-era tariffs.
There is no way to replace the U.S. income tax structure with tariff revenue.
Foreign companies are certainly paying some tariffs on imports into the United States, but foreign countries have never paid Trump’s tariffs.
Not all countries are sticking with the deals they made after the Supreme Court invalidated the tariff authority on which they were predicated. His deal with the European Union is on pause, Taiwan is reassessing its commitments, and details on Japan’s investment plans are still in flux. Little wonder. Especially for countries that agreed to accept U.S. tariff rates higher than the current 10% and threatened 15% tariff imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a pause in implementation is hardly surprising. Why would countries voluntarily accept a deal with a higher tariff rate?
Finally, the most impactful issue was not mentioned in Trump’s address to Congress: what will happen to the $170+ billion in tariff revenue that the Supreme Court said was collected illegally. Spoiler: It should go to American households and small businesses, but Trump wants to hold on to it, and many large corporations see tariff refunds as an opportunity for windfall profits after either making foreign suppliers eat tariff costs or raising consumer prices or both. More than 900 companies have sued for refunds in the one week since the Supreme Court threw out Trump’s tariff regime. Catch Rethink Trade’s Lori Wallach discussing what could happen to that cash and more on Lever Time.
Quick Hits
WATCH: Sr. Legal Counsel Lee Hepner testified before Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats about how corporations are supplanting fair pricing with surveillance pricing and other scam tactics. Sen. Cory Booker put out a video on surveillance pricing the day prior.
On Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and sixteen other Democratic Senators introduced the American Homeownership Act of 2026, which would end major federal tax deductions and other benefits for Wall Street landlords. We’ll have more to say about this in a post next week so stay tuned.
The Trump administration proposed to offer new Obamacare plans with lower monthly premiums—but astronomical deductibles up to $31,000 for a family.
A publicly-traded private credit vehicle managed by private markets giant KKR tumbled 15% on Thursday after markdowns hit some of its debt holdings—the latest sign that ill-advised lending by private credit funds is widespread as investors increasingly seek to withdraw from the asset class.
Following discovery in California AG Rob Bonta’s price fixing case against Amazon, the state reported on Monday that it had “uncovered evidence of countless interactions in which Amazon, vendors, and Amazon’s competitors agree to increase and fix the prices of products on other retail websites to bolster Amazon’s profits.”
The Department of Justice Antitrust Division has given approval to the proposed merger of Getty and Shutterstock, the top two largest global stock image and video providers. The deal will mean lower royalties and fewer choices for photographers and videographers.
The Verge reports that 160 Democratic lawmakers are backing a soon-to-be-introduced bill to codify IRS Direct File, which allowed Americans to file taxes for free before the Trump administration killed it amidst lobbying from tax prep companies.
Sr. Fellow for Airlines and Travel Bill McGee spoke to the Washington Post about fee-free family seating.
ICYMI: One Year In: The Good, and the (Mostly) Bad and Ugly of Trump’s Antitrust and Consumer Protection.