Seeking Rents – The Podcast
"Rent-seeking" is a term in economics that describes when a corporation uses its political influence to twist tax laws and other public policy in its favor.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 8
- Latest publication
- Sep 19, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest episodes
The sickness infecting Florida state government (opens the original)
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In this episode : A new investigation reveals that Florida was secretly confining immigrants in cages the size of phone booths inside its infamous prison camp in the middle of the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, the state attorney general and politically ambitious judges are colluding to weaponize family-law courtrooms and use them as fronts in their crusades against women’s healthcare and LGBTQ+ rights. Plus: A new developer-backed law out of Tallahassee is roiling local communities by unleashin
Big money loses big (opens the original)
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In this episode : A number of lavishly funded candidates fell to grassroots challengers running on shoestring budgets during this week’s primary elections, showing that Big Money can become a big liability. Then again, Facebook’s favorite legislators survived their races and the candidate with the biggest bank account of them all — Byron Donalds, the new Republican nominee for governor — won his contest with (relative) ease. Plus: A book-banning backlash continues, Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP
Endorsed by Mark Zuckerberg (opens the original)
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In this episode : In Tampa, Big Tech giant Meta Platforms is funding last-minute mailers on behalf of a Democratic legislator who is locked in a tough primary for an open seat in the state Senate. And in Miami, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram is paying for digital ads promoting a Republican legislator who is in line to become speaker of the state House. It’s all part of a nationwide campaign by Meta to fill state Legislatures with candidates supportive of the artificial intelligence
Zombie sprawl (opens the original)
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In this episode : A month-old law enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature — with help from lobbyists representing major developers — already has more than 15 square miles of farmland around the state at risk of being consumed for new housing subdivisions. Many of the proposed projects have been previously rejected by county commissioners because of concerns about traffic congestion, habitat destruction, and encroachment on rural communities. But Tallahassee has now tied the hand
Billionaires for Byron (opens the original)
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In this episode : A billionaire hedge fund executive gave $10 million last week to Byron Donalds, the Republican Congressman from Naples who is the favorite to win the GOP nomination for Florida governor in next month’s primary elections. His gift came after a billionaire TikTok investor gave Donalds at least $7.5 million. Other billionaires are pouring money into the Donalds campaign, too. Their cash comes with strings. Plus: Attorney General James Uthmeier helps the billionaire-owned Fontaineb
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