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CNN
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American democracy can really be a slogan. Progress tends to be measured in millimeters. As any activist will tell you, there are few victories. Some people might even find a certain beauty in the way the system is designed to keep special interests in check.
But the Founding Fathers couldn’t foresee the amazing power of the mega-fans known as the Swiftes.
Today, just two months after Ticketmaster failed to pre-sell Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour, Congress is asking the company’s president to be questioned, effectively accusing him of undermining America’s capitalist foundations. Did.
“We need competition to build a strong capitalist system,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was called to the hearing. “Unfortunately for this country, we cannot do too much integration in tribute to Taylor Swift. everything is too good”
(Good job, Ames.)
Tickets for ICYMI, Swift’s Eras Tour, which starts in March, went on pre-sale at Ticketmaster in mid-November. But there was too much demand and the site gave in.
Fans, who have been deprived of Taylor’s live shows since well before the pandemic, often waited in online queues for hours before walking away empty-handed, resulting in a collective meltdown.
Ticketmaster then canceled the next round of Swift ticket sales to the general public, citing “extremely high demands on the ticketing system and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet those demands.” .
Three guesses as to how it ended…
Almost immediately, fans exploded on Ticketmaster for their monopoly-like control of the ticket industry.
That criticism is nothing new — Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation in 2009. Since then, the user experience feels very much like 2009, as most people who have bought tickets to live events can attest to (I mean, it sucks. But we all love sports and music, so glitchy By the time you put up with some site or garbage app and dance and shout every word, you forget how awful the process was. 1989 while Tay completes her 11th costume change of the night).
In the weeks following the meltdown, more than 20 fans have sued Live Nation for “misconduct” and the ticketing giant has filed an antitrust hearing as the Senate schedules hearings to find out the truth of the debacle. claimed to have violated the law.
Here are some of the highlights from Tuesday’s hearings. There, Live Nation Entertainment president and CFO Joubert Hittold lashed out at lawmakers during a small speech in which he dropped T-Swift lyrics to show his cultural credibility. bottom.
- Bot defense: Berchtold reiterated its apologies and claims that the site was hit by an unprecedented amount of bot traffic, forcing it to slow or pause sales. “I apologize to my fans,” Berchtold said. “Sorry Mr. Swift. We need to do better and we will do better.”
- A rare bipartisan moment: Senator Richard Blumenthal told Berchtold: And really, it’s hard to overstate the anger on either side.Here’s another of Republican John Kennedy’s enthusiastic words. I am against dams… The way your company handled Ms. Swift’s ticket sales was a fiasco. ”
- There is no easy answer: The public hearing ended without a clear direction. Senator Amy Klobuchar said some issues in the ticketing and resale market could be resolved by legislation. But the bigger question of whether Live Nation is a monopoly is up to the Justice Department. Tuesday’s hearing could give DOJ political support for the final antitrust lawsuit against the company.
A colleague of mine elaborates on the hearing and its finicky name drop.
Walmart raises base pay for U.S. hourly workers from $12 to $14 an hour.
Walmart is America’s largest privately owned company, employing 1.7 million people. About 94% of these workers are paid hourly.
The move could have ripple effects across the service industry, as Walmart’s starting salaries often serve as a local benchmark in states that haven’t changed wage laws.
When the market opened on Tuesday morning, I was sipping my coffee and trying to put off work when alert after alert popped up on my laptop screen. A bunch of tickers on the New York Stock Exchange have stopped.
Thankfully my colleague Nicole Goodkind had already solved this problem.
The New York Stock Exchange is investigating an apparent technical glitch that temporarily halted trading for dozens of companies, including Verizon, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, AT&T and Nike.
Many of these stocks took a wild swing in the first minute of Tuesday’s trading, with Wall Street’s who thought they were watching tens of billions of dollars wiped from the market for no apparent reason. terrified the traders.
Morgan Stanley, Walmart and McDonald’s all temporarily plunged above 12%, possibly triggering emergency shutdowns that automatically trigger when exchanges experience anomalies. AT&T seemed to vacillate between a 20% gain and a 20% decline in a matter of seconds.
“It was really scary when I first saw it,” Matt Tuttle, chief executive of Tuttle Capital Management, told Bloomberg. “I would be surprised if anyone didn’t get hurt by this. I do not know.
The NYSE didn’t provide details about the “technical issues” it said caused the volatility. Everything was back to normal on the exchange after about 20 minutes, and all affected companies resumed trading.
But traders had a right to be surprised, especially if they were old enough to remember the 2010 Flash Crash.
By Tuesday afternoon, the New York Stock Exchange said some trades were declared “void” because “system problems” caused some securities to trade without opening auction prices. .
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