{{Short description|American political commentator (born 1978)}} {{Infobox person | name = Matt Stoller | image = File:Matt Stoller bio pic.jpg | caption = Stoller in 2019 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1978|02|08}} | birth_place = London, England | occupation = {{hlist|Political commentator|author}} | education = Harvard University (BA) }} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} '''Matthew Stoller''' (born February 8, 1978)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2007/05/blogjam-openly-left-mydd-004165|title=BlogJam: Openly left MyDD|last=Grim|first=Ryan|website=Politico|date=May 23, 2007|access-date=March 21, 2024}}</ref> is an American political commentator and author. He is the research director of the American Economic Liberties Project.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/technology/big-tech-antitrust.html|title=She Wants to Break Up Big Everything|first=David|last=McCabe|work=The New York Times |date=February 11, 2020|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Stoller was born in London and grew up in Miami, Florida, with his brother Nicholas Stoller, a filmmaker.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/nick_stoller|title = Nicholas Stoller|website = Rotten Tomatoes|publisher = Fandango Media|accessdate = September 30, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Wallerstein|first=Andrew|title=Brand X with Russell Brand|publisher=Variety|date=June 28, 2012|url=https://variety.com/2012/tv/reviews/brand-x-with-russell-brand-1117947835/}}</ref> His mother, Phyllis, is a travel tour operator, and his father, Eric C. Stoller, is a bank executive.<ref name="wedding">{{Citation | last = Lacher | first = Irene | title = Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller | newspaper=The New York Times | date = October 9, 2005 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/fashion/weddings/09vows.html | access-date = April 10, 2008 }}</ref>
Stoller attended St. Paul's School and then graduated with a BA in history from Harvard College in 2000.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web |date=April 21, 2023 |title=Washington's Angriest Progressive Is Winning Over Conservatives – and Baffling Old Allies |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/21/matt-stoller-hawley-trust-busting-00092679 |website=Politico}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/matt-stoller-on-the-100-year-war-between-monopoly-power-and-democracy/|title=Matt Stoller on the 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy|date=February 10, 2020|website=Corporate Crime Reporter}}</ref>
==Career== After college, Stoller worked at a software startup in Massachusetts. During this time he started blogging about politics in the lead up to the 2003 Iraq War. He sided with Democratic war hawks in supporting the invasion. After the basis of the war was shown to be rooted in false premises and those who promoted it would face no consequences, he grew depressed and felt that he had "endorsed mass murder".<ref name="auto2"/> In 2008, he started working as a member of the staff of congressman Alan Grayson, where he worked on policies involving Federal Reserve transparency and foreclosures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2009/03/rep-grayson-wont-hold-his-tongue-019695|title=Rep. Grayson won't hold his tongue|first=Josh|last=Kraushaar |website=Politico|date=March 6, 2009}}</ref>
Stoller was a producer for ''The Dylan Ratigan Show'' on MSNBC.<ref name="auto" /> Stoller then moved to Los Angeles to work as a writer and actor for the first season of the television series ''Brand X with Russell Brand''.<ref name="auto" /> He acted as Brand's sidekick, bringing up subjects which were then remarked upon by Brand.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-xpm-2012-jun-29-la-et-brand-x-russell-brand-20120629-story.html|title=Review: Russell Brand may be only one having fun on FX's 'Brand X'|date=June 29, 2012|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
Starting in 2015, Stoller was a Senior Policy Advisor and Budget Analyst for the Senate Budget Committee.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://fedsoc.org/contributors/matt-stoller|title=Matt Stoller|website=fedsoc.org|date=March 22, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bernie-sanders-remakes-budget-committee-his-image-msna497636|title=Bernie Sanders remakes Budget Committee in his image|website=MSNBC.com|date=January 5, 2015 }}</ref>
In 2016, Stoller began working for Open Markets, a group embedded in the think tank New America.<ref name="auto2" /> At Open Markets, he "researched the history of the relationship between concentrated financial power and the Democratic party in the 20th century".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newamerica.org/our-people/matt-stoller/ |title=Matt Stoller |publisher=New America}}</ref> In 2017, Open Markets posted a statement in support of a 4 billion Euro fine given by European regulators to Google and extolling American officials to do similarly. The group was asked to leave New America shortly afterwards.<ref name="auto2" /> In 2020, Stoller and some other members of Open Markets created their own organization, the American Economic Liberties Project. The organization is nonpartisan and does not take corporate money.<ref name="auto2" />
In 2019, Stoller published the book ''Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy'', a history of United States economic policy.<ref name="WashPo_Waterhouse">{{cite news |last=Waterhouse |first=Benjamin C. |title=A history of America's fight against monopolies |newspaper=Washington Post |date=December 6, 2019 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-history-of-americas-fight-against-monopolies/2019/12/06/ce34b360-da3c-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html |access-date=January 15, 2024}}</ref> It begins with the rise of anti-monopoly policy, including the 1916 appointment of Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court, then regulation and antitrust action under the New Deal, to the anti-regulation economists of the Chicago School, the dismantlement of antitrust and financial regulations which have resulted in the business monopolies seen today.<ref name="WashPo_Waterhouse" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2019/10/28/big-business-is-not-the-enemy-of-the-people/|title=Big Business Is Not the Enemy of the People|website=National Review |date=October 10, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/18644_goliath-the-100-year-war-between-monopoly-power-and-democracy-by-matt-stoller-reviewed-by-hans-g-despain/|title='Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy' by Matt Stoller reviewed by Hans G Despain|website=marxandphilosophy.org.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://prospect.org/api/content/aae9bf1c-e9f6-11e9-a64e-12f1225286c6/|title=Monopoly and Its Discontents|first=Gerald|last=Berk|date=October 9, 2019|website=The American Prospect}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/matt-stoller/goliath-100-year-war/ |title=GOLIATH | Kirkus Reviews }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781501183089 |title=Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Populism by Matt Stoller|website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> The book was described by ''Politico'' as the "foundational historical text for a movement coming to be known as the New Brandeisian School".<ref name="auto2" /> The movement takes inspiration from Louis Brandeis who was a prominent anti-monopolist.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dayen|first=David|authorlink= David Dayen|date=April 4, 2017|title=This Budding Movement Wants to Smash Monopolies|language=en-US|work=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-budding-movement-wants-to-smash-monopolies/|access-date=July 9, 2021|issn=0027-8378|archive-date=July 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723023109/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/this-budding-movement-wants-to-smash-monopolies/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=De La Cruz|first=Peter|title=The Antitrust Pendulum Swings to the Populist Pole|url=https://www.natlawreview.com/article/antitrust-pendulum-swings-to-populist-pole|url-status=live|access-date=July 9, 2021|website=The National Law Review|language=en|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709192325/https://www.natlawreview.com/article/antitrust-pendulum-swings-to-populist-pole}}</ref> Brandeis believed that antitrust action should prevent any one company from maintaining too much power over the economy because monopolies were harmful to innovation, business vitality, and the welfare of workers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=August 6, 2020|title=What more should antitrust be doing?|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2020/08/06/what-more-should-antitrust-be-doing|access-date=September 6, 2021|issn=0013-0613|archive-date=September 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210906004111/https://www.economist.com/schools-brief/2020/08/06/what-more-should-antitrust-be-doing|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Eeckhout|first=Jan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HKAMEAAAQBAJ|title=The Profit Paradox: How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work|date=June 2021|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-21447-4|pages=246–248|language=en|access-date=December 12, 2021|archive-date=July 26, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220726145649/https://books.google.com/books?id=HKAMEAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
To help promote his book and ideas, Stoller started a newsletter titled ''Big''. As of 2023, it has around 85,000 subscribers.<ref name="auto2" /> In 2024, he and ''The American Prospect'' executive editor David Dayen began a spin-off podcast titled ''Organized Money''.<ref name="Organized Money">{{cite web |title=Organized Money |website=Podnews |date=October 15, 2024 |url=https://podnews.net/podcast/iufib |access-date=November 19, 2024}}</ref>
==Beliefs== Stoller is an anti-monopolist. Much of his work centers on advocating for the breakup of monopolies and the promotion of regulated competition. With his work centered on intellectual history and policy rather than elections, he has made allies with members of both parties. He has supported the policies of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Senator Josh Hawley who, during his time as Missouri Attorney General, was the first state attorney general to sue Google based on antitrust law.<ref name="auto2"/> In a profile of Stoller, ''Politico'' described his "dogmatic" belief that the goal of breaking up monopolies is "so central and so urgent that nearly any other cause or political relationship should be sacrificed in service of it".<ref name="auto2"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *[https://mattstoller.substack.com/ BIG by Matt Stoller] *{{IMDb name|nm3074127}} *{{C-SPAN|1020099}} *[https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/author/matt-stoller Matt Stoller] at ''Naked Capitalism''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoller, Matt}} Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American Jews Category:21st-century American male writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:American political commentators Category:American political writers Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers Category:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Category:Writers from London Category:Writers from Miami Category:American bloggers