Month: June 2024

Authored by Larry Sand via American Greatness,

In 1923, a group of professors known as the Frankfurt School came to the fore. These German Marxists—notably Theodore Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse—harbored a deep disdain for capitalism and traditional morals.

Unfortunately, the professors did not stay in their homeland long. Adolph Hitler’s rise to power forced them out of Germany, and they reemerged at Columbia University in New York City in 1935.

And a century later, the malign effects of their teachings are still with us.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Critical Race Theory (CRT), Black Lives Matter (BLM), gender indoctrination, wokeism, etc., fade in and out of the news cycle, but they have established a secure foothold in the nation’s culture, notably in our schools.

Cultural Marxism is still pervasive in a significant number of our colleges. In Illinois, legislators want to embed racial considerations into state appropriations for public universities. According to its website, Yale’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry faculty are told to place “DEI at the center of every decision” when making hires.

There are a few bright spots, however. Public universities in Texas, Florida, and Utah have banned DEI. However, those decisions came from state governments, not from the colleges themselves.

At MIT, a private university, President Sally Kornbluth confirmed in May that the school would “no longer require diversity statements in faculty hiring.”

Also, according to an analysis from OpenTheBooks.com, the University of North Carolina spends an estimated $90 million each year on 686 employees who promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in their departments or across the system. But change is on the horizon. In a repudiation of DEI ideology, the UNC Board of Governors voted on May 23 to repeal its diversity policy.

Sadly, at the elementary and high school level, the Marxists predominate. In fact, our K-12 schools lay the groundwork for all the college campus lunacy we see practically on a daily basis.

Christopher Rufo reports that in Portland, the Intifada begins in kindergarten. For example, the teachers union suggests that kindergarteners be gathered into a circle and taught the history of Palestine: “Seventy-five years ago, a lot of decision-makers around the world decided to take away Palestinian land to make a country called Israel. Israel would be a country where rules were mostly fair for Jewish people with white skin. There’s a BIG word for when indigenous land gets taken away to make a country; that’s called settler colonialism.” (Ibram X. Kendi, probably the most strident CRT proponent in the country, contends that kindergarten is too late to start. He thinks that ‘Antiracist’ education should start before age 3.)

The Jew-hating lies have been working. In the three months following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Anti-Defamation League tallied 256 antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools nationwide.

The Zinn Education Project, named after the late Communist college professor, is advancing its agenda via the “Teach Truth Day of Action,” which is celebrated in June. (There is no specific date.) The goal is to eliminate “right-wing forces” and “fascists,” which the organization laughably insists dominate public education in the country. The Zinners maintain that more than 65 organizations are co-sponsoring the Teach Truth Day of Action, including the Abolitionist Teaching Network, the African American Policy Forum, the American Library Association, Black Lives Matter at School, Black Teacher Project, SNCC Legacy Project, and more.

Notably, the National Education Association is a big supporter of the Teach Truth Day of Action. On its website, the teachers’ union states, “On June 8, educators, students, parents, and community members across the country joined the 4th annual Teach Truth Day of Action, taking part in book exchanges (including banned ones!), historic walks, voter registration drives, and more.”

It’s worth noting that while schools are doing a bang-up job of indoctrinating students, only 22% of eighth-graders scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level on the most recent test in civics, and just 13% scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in U.S. history.

One state seems to be moving in the right direction. Texas is doing what it can to reinstate tradition by injecting Bible stories into elementary school reading programs. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick praised the curriculum changes, explaining that they will “get us back to teaching, not necessarily the Bible per se, but the stories from the Bible.”

What can be done to stem the Marxists?

In public schools, state laws can help, and local school board elections can make a difference, but when the school bell rings and the classroom door is shut, the teacher will talk about whatever he or she wants to.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former fifth-grade teacher, writes that a 2017 RAND Corporation survey found that “99% of elementary teachers and 96% of secondary schools use ‘materials I developed and/or selected myself’ in teaching English language arts. The numbers are virtually the same in math. But putting teachers in charge of creating their own lesson plans or scouring the internet for curriculum materials creates an irresistible opportunity for every imaginable interest group that perceives—not incorrectly—that overworked teachers and a captive young audience equal a rich target for selling products and pushing ideologies.”

As an example, Pondiscio cites a public school in Brooklyn, part of the New York City Board of Education. Kids were sent home with an “activity book” promoting the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, including “queer affirming,” “transgender affirming,” and “restorative justice.” The book was not authorized for classroom use by either the N.Y.C. Department of Education or Brooklyn’s Community School District 15. “It appears to have begun its journey into students’ backpacks at the massive ‘Share My Lesson’ website run by the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union.”

Pondiscio notes that while they are seldom traceable to formally adopted school curricula, there are 75 different lesson plans and resources for conducting “privilege walks” and more than 100 lessons and resources on “preferred pronouns” at Teachers Pay Teachers, which is another lesson-sharing website.

Additionally, the advocacy group Parents Defending Education has created an Indoctrination Map, which documents countless incidents of “schools teaching lessons on race, gender, or other hot-button issues that parents deemed inappropriate or upsetting.”

Mark Tapson, Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and culture warrior, along with his wife, homeschool four of their five kids. (Number five will join the others when he is of age.) Tapson asserts that the “aim of the neo-Marxist Left is to break down the family unit by de-legitimizing parents’ legal and moral right to determine how their own children are raised. The Left wants to take your children and grandchildren and raise them as loyal, dependent subjects of the atheistic State, disconnected from their own history and culture, and devoid of critical thinking skills, intellectual independence, or a spiritual dimension.”

Tapson is absolutely correct. The godfather of communism, Karl Marx, taught his followers that the world was divided into two categories—oppressors and oppressed. Marx despised the nuclear family, which he claimed “performs ideological functions for capitalism” and teaches “passive acceptance of hierarchy.” He thought that the destruction of the family model would make it easier to abolish private property.

Sending your kid to school these days is risky business, and parents need to step up and take on that responsibility if at all possible.

Money market funds saw modest inflows last week (up around $5BN) as bank deposits (NSA) saw $25.7BN outflows…

Source: Bloomberg

However, on a seasonally-adjusted basis, total bank deposits rose by $38BN last week to their highest since SVB’s collapse…

Source: Bloomberg

And, excluding foreign deposits, domestic banks saw seasonally-adjusted deposits rise $57.7BN (large banks +$55.5, small banks +$2.2BN), while on an NSA basis, domestic deposits tumbles $4.3BN (large banks +8.4BN, small banks -$12.7BN)…

Source: Bloomberg

On the other side of the ledger, loan volumes increased on the week, driven by a $11.8BN rise at small banks (while large banks saw loan volumes shrink by $255MM), which is weird given the massive SA rise in large bank deposits….

Source: Bloomberg

Usage of The Fed’s Reverse Repo facility soared across quarter-/month-end (as it tends to do)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, US equity market capitalization remains drastically decoupled from its historically tight relationship with bank reserves at The Fed…

Source: Bloomberg

But globally, central bank balance sheet shrinkage continues as stocks soar…

Source: Bloomberg

Now that would be quite recoupling.

Authored by Rachel Acenas via The Epoch Times,

A southern California doctor who purposely drove his car with his family off a cliff won’t face trial due to his mental illness, prosecutors announced.

Dharmesh Patel, 42, was granted a mental health diversion by a court due to evidence that shows the radiologist suffers from major depressive disorder, according to the San Mateo District Attorney’s office in a statement on Thursday.

The completion of a mental health diversion program in California allows a defendant to seek treatment and have charges against them dismissed.

“Weighing all factors, the court determined the defendant was suitable and granted the defense request for mental health diversion,’ Judge Susan Jakubowski said in her ruling, adding that his diagnosed disorder “has the required nexus to the criminal conduct.”

250 Feet Off a Cliff

Dr. Patel had pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder after he drove his Tesla 250 feet off a cliff in January last year. His wife and two children, 7 and 4, were injured, but all survived the crash.

The car was traveling southbound on Pacific Coast Highway before flying off the cliff known as Devil’s Slide in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco.

Local media footage captured images of the damaged Tesla under the cliff near the water’s edge.

Fire crews rushed to the scene after witnesses called 911. Firefighters rappelled off the cliff to rescue the children while helicopters hoisted the couple to safety.

“The damage to the vehicle indicated that it hit and flipped several times and landed mostly on its wheels,” Brian Pottenger, battalion chief, said at the scene.

“We were actually very shocked that we found survivable victims in the vehicle,” he added.

Psychologists Testify

The judge overseeing his case heard from several psychologists who testified that Dr. Patel appeared increasingly delusional in the days before the crash, which ultimately spiraled into a one-time psychotic episode.

Prior to the psychotic break, he often could not sleep at night and was consumed with negative thoughts, according to psychologists’ court testimony. The doctor drove his children off the cliff because he feared they would be kidnapped or sex trafficked. He also often thought about the nationwide fentanyl crisis and the war in Ukraine.

But his delusions stopped after receiving treatment behind bars, according to expert witness Dr. Mark Patterson, who also said Dr. Patel feels a lot of remorse for the crash.

“I see him as someone who is very motivated and amenable to treatment,” the doctor testified.

Dr. Patel’s attorney, Joshua Bentley, described him as “a good man” during a previous hearing to determine whether he was eligible for a treatment program, stressing that his wife begged for his release.

The doctor will remain jailed for several weeks during a so-called “bridging period.” He will be released to his parents’ home in San Mateo County but will not be able to leave the residence while he remains under house arrest.

The judge set a July 31 date to solidify details of his release.

Dr. Patel will continue to participate in therapy sessions, must report to court once a week to provide updates on his progress, and take twice weekly tests to show that he is complying with his medication.

He is also prohibited from drinking alcohol or taking drugs and must surrender his driver’s license and passport. He would also be barred from practicing medicine under the plan.

A new Bloomberg report reveals that retailer Target is finally cracking down on thieves by lowering the staff intervention threshold from $100 to $50. Target management has complained on earnings calls about ‘shrink’ in recent quarters and surging thefts that have squeezed margins. 

People familiar with the new policy say employees will soon be able to intervene and halt criminals from leaving the store with as little as $50 in stolen goods. The previous threshold was $100. They say the new policy will be enforced this summer. 

Target operates nearly 2,000 stores in the US and has warned investors countless times about damaging shrink—inventory loss due to theft, damage, and other factors—which has squeezed profit margins. 

In March, Target Executive Vice President Michael Fiddelke said the company lost $500 million more in shrink in 2023 than in 2022. 

The company expects shrink to a peak in 2024 as it works with policymakers and various cities to address out-of-control thefts. 

Progressive lawmakers in states that ignored law and order only emboldened criminals to pillage retail stores as criminal and social justice reforms backfired. California decriminalizing thefts under $950 has been one of the biggest policy failures.

The National Retail Federation has previously stated that shrink accounted for $112.1 billion in losses in 2022, up from $93.9 billion in 2021. Failed progressive policies have sparked unprecedented levels of theft.

Bloomberg data shows that the number of ‘shrink’ mentions on earnings calls began rising in 3Q22, peaking at nearly 600 in 3Q23, but remains elevated. 

In response, retailers have shut down stores in crime-ridden areas and locked up entire aisles of high-value items. A lawless society, due to failed progressive policies, cannot economically thrive. It’s time for Americans to demand law and order. 

By Dhaval Joshi of BCA Research

Many economists and strategists emphasize the importance of China’s credit impulse as the driver of China’s – and the world’s – economic growth. A key question for them is: what is happening to China’s credit impulse – is it increasing, decreasing,  stabilizing, or destabilizing? For many years, this was indeed the key question to ask.

Not anymore.

After the global financial crisis of 2008-09, China unleashed a stimulus bazooka. A stimulus so big that China’s credit impulse peaked at a massive and unprecedented 25% of China’s GDP. In the subsequent stimuluses of 2013 and 2017, China’s credit impulse peaked at a sizable, albeit lower, 15% of GDP. Then in 2020 came the global pandemic. Yet even after this once-in-
a-century shock, China’s credit impulse peaked at a still-lower 10 percent of GDP, less than half of the post-GFC peak.

In the so-called ‘stimulus’ that has come more recently, the impact has truly dwindled. China’s credit impulse has peaked at little more than 3 percent of GDP, equating to barely a tenth of the post-GFC impact (Chart 1).

Of course, China is a bigger part of the world economy now than it was during the global financial crisis. Nevertheless, a peak stimulus of 25% of China’s GDP in 2009 equaled 2% of the world economy. Whereas a peak stimulus of 3% of China’s GDP today equals less than 0.5 percent of the world economy. It follows that China’s credit impulse is becoming less relevant, both for its own economy and for the world economy.

Exponential Credit Growth Fueled China’s Boom

China’s peak credit impulse mattered a lot because, as might be expected, China’s nominal GDP growth accelerated by a commensurate amount to the associated peak credit impulse. A peak credit impulse that was well into double digits would cause nominal growth to accelerate by double digits. But with a peak impulse that has now dwindled into the low single-digits, China can no longer repeat such sharp stimulus-driven accelerations (Chart 2).

China’s credit impulse also mattered because, until the late-2010s, it rarely went negative (Chart 3). Meaning it was almost always a tailwind to growth, and almost never a headwind. Given that the credit impulse is the change in the change in credit, this raises an interesting question. If the second derivative of the curve is always positive, then what is the underlying curve? Any schoolboy mathematician will tell you the answer is an exponential curve. In fact, the very definition of an exponential curve is that all its derivatives must be positive.

Guess what? China’s stock of credit was an exponential curve. In fact, we can describe it as exponential-plus because, until the mid-2010s, it looked exponential even on a logarithmic scale! There, in a nutshell is the recipe for China’s spectacular growth of the past few decades: exponential credit growth (Chart 4).

The trouble is that exponential credit growth cannot last forever because credit must be put to productive use, and credit cannot  be put to productive use exponentially.

Absent China’s Exponential Credit Growth, World Growth Will Slow To Sub-3 Percent

For several decades, China’s exponential credit growth funded a housing and construction boom that fulfilled Chinese households’ insatiable demand for investment properties.

Without a comprehensive pension or welfare system, Chinese households save a lot. It was rational to channel those savings into the double-digit gains coming from investment properties. Once those double-digit gains became seemingly risk-free, it was also ‘rational’ not to require a rental yield.

The result: house price-to-rent ratios, at 75, that dwarfed even the peak bubble valuations in Japan, Spain, and Australia; a Chinese real estate market valued at $100 trillion, making it by far the largest asset class in the world; plus 130 million empty Chinese homes – a stock of unoccupied investment properties equal to the entire housing stock of the United States.

But with Chinese house prices falling for two years now, the illusion of risk-free property investment has been shattered, and investment property demand has collapsed. China’s command economy will ensure that its housing market adjustment comes from a reduction in housing development and construction activity to equilibrate supply with collapsing demand. Yet this carries huge implications for the world economy – because China’s construction and infrastructure boom, fuelled by exponential credit growth, was the world’s main growth engine.

Absent exponential credit growth, China’s trend growth rate will fall to 4 percent and the world’s trend growth rate will fall to sub-3 percent (Chart 5).

One important consequence will be for commodity demand, and there is a subtle point that most people do not grasp. Commodity demand growth tracks economic growth less a deflator for efficiency gains. For copper, the efficiency deflator is around 3 percent a year. Hence, as the world’s trend growth falls to sub-3 percent, the trend growth in copper demand will flip from positive to negative.

The perma-bulls point to new sources of copper demand that will come from the de-carbonisation of the world economy. Yet they ignore that the main engine of existing demand is dying. With new demand, at best, just substituting for this dying demand, world copper demand is set to underperform the recent ramp-up in supply (Chart 6).

Three Investment Conclusions, One Provocative

The first conclusion is that absent China’s exponential credit growth, it will be impossible to have a so-called ‘commodity super-cycle’. Instead, commodities will now follow shorter sharper cycles. Right now, as we presaged in early-May, industrial metals are unwinding the sharp tactical rally that began this year. This we are  playing with a tactical short in the global base metals ETF (XBM).

The second conclusion is that absent China’s exponential credit growth, it will be difficult for China’s stock market to produce long-lasting rallies. Like commodities, the CSI 300 will now be a tactical play.

Following a protracted sell-off during 2023, we anticipated that the CSI 300 was ripe for a sharp countertrend rally earlier this year. However, the collapsed 65-day complexity of this sharp rally implies that it is now exhausted.

The third conclusion concerns our structural overweight in developed markets (DM) versus emerging markets (EM) which has  returned 50 percent since initiation in late-2020. The end of China’s exponential credit growth might suggest a continuation of DM’s outperformance, but we must weigh this against the bubble-like valuations of the dominant US superstar stocks which I highlighted in BCA Research – Who Will Find Gold In The AI Gold Rush, And When?

Given that the outperformance of the US versus EM is at top of its multi-decade channel, while the outperformance of Europe  versus EM is still below the middle of this channel, it is time to modify our structural overweight to DM versus EM (Chart 7).

Close overweight DM versus EM. And replace with overweight Europe versus EM.

A new report from Moody’s offers yet another grim outlook that the commercial real estate downturn is nowhere near the bottom. Elevated interest rates and persistent remote and hybrid working trends could result in around 24% of all office towers standing vacant within the next two years. The office tower apocalypse will result in more depressed values that will only pressure landlords. 

“Combining these insights, with our more than 40 years of historic office performance data, as well as future employment projections, our model indicates that the impact on office demand from work from home will be around 14% on average across a 63- month period, resulting in vacancy rates that peak in early 2026 at approximately 24% nationally,” Moody’s analysts Todd Metcalfe, Anthony Spinelli, and Thomas LaSalvia wrote in the report. 

In a separate report, Tom LaSalvia, Moody’s head of CRE economics, wrote that the office vacancy rate’s move from 19.8% in the first quarter of this year to the expected 24% by 2026 could reduce revenue for office landlords by between $8 billion and $10 billion. Factor in lower rents and higher costs, this may translate into “property value destruction” in the range of a quarter-trillion dollars. 

In addition to remote working trends, Moody’s analysts pointed out that the amount of office space per worker has been in a “general downward trend for decades.” 

At the peak of the Dot-Com boom, office workers used an average of 190 sq ft. The figure has since slid to 155 sq ft in 2023. 

“The argument for maintaining or even increasing remote work practices remains compelling for many businesses,” the analysts said, adding, “If productivity remains stable and costs can be reduced by forgoing physical office spaces, the rationale for mandating in-office attendance diminishes.”

Related research from the McKinsey Global Institute forecasts that office property values will plummet by $800 billion to $1.3 trillion by the decade’s end. 

Moody’s expects vacancy rates to top out as office towers are demolished or converted to residential ones in the coming years. 

“Right-sizing will continue over the next decade as the market shakes out less efficient space for flexible floorplans that support our relatively new working habits,” they said. 

Earlier this year, Goldman analyst Jan Hatzius pointed out that a further 50% price decline would make office tower conversions financially sensible. 

Meanwhile, in March, Goldman’s Vinay Viswanathan penned that “office mortgages are living on borrowed time.” 

Office stress isn’t entirely done yet. The downturn is likely to persist through 2026. 

*   *   * 

Read the full Moody’s report here:

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The debate last night was chilling for many citizens as President Joe Biden clearly struggled to stay focused and responsive. It appeared to put on display what Special Counsel Robert Hur saw in his interview before concluding that Biden’s loss of mental capacity would make a prosecution difficult.

What may be equally troubling for Democrats and the media is a poll that came out just before the debate that shows more swing-state voters see former President Donald Trump rather than President Joe Biden as protecting democracy.

According to a new poll from the Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, if “democracy is on the ballot,” the majority of the public believes that threat comes from elsewhere, including possibly Biden himself.

Over half of the respondents told the Washington Post that threats to democracy are extremely important to their vote for president.

However, 44% said they think Trump would do a better job at handling those threats. Only 33% of respondents said they believe Biden would be better for democracy.

Many citizens are alarmed by prosecutions like the one in Manhattan where the legal system seems to have been weaponized against political opponents.

The poll not only shows the diminishing faith in the President but also in the press. The media has been unrelenting in pushing the narrative that this election is a choice between democracy and tyranny. The public is clearly tuning out the media message. This is only the latest example of that widening gap. Indeed, the whole “Let’s Go Brandon” chant is as much a criticism of the media as it is President Biden.

I have previously written that democracy is not on the ballot but free speech is. The Biden Administration has chilling analogies to the Adams Administration in the weaponization of the legal system and the crackdown on free speech. What should most concern Biden is the possibility of another aspect of history repeating itself: a defeat like the one in 1800.

As I discuss in my new book, The Indispensable Right, President John Adams, used the Alien and Sedition Acts to arrest his political opponents – including journalists, members of Congress and others. Many of those prosecuted by the Adams administration were Jeffersonians. In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson ran on the issue and defeated Adams.

The anti-free speech movement has flourished largely in the echo chambers of academia and the media.

It is time for the public to render its judgment. Free speech is again on the ballot. It is time for the public to decide.

It has for many months been clear that the world is one incident away from witnessing WW3 in eastern Europe, as NATO gets ever-more deeply involved in Ukraine, and given Moscow has recently issued threats to attack Western airbases housing aircraft which could be deployed in the country.

NATO aircraft, including drones, have also been busier than ever over the Black Sea, just off Russia. Already this has resulted in confrontations like the March 14, 2023 incident in which a Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepted and damaged an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to crash in the Black Sea.

This could easily happen again, and the Kremlin on Friday is sounding the alarm over an encroaching US presence over the Black Sea. It is preparing new “rapid response measures” to deal with potential incidents in nearby airspace.

Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has ordered the armed forces to prepare to “react to provocations” due to NATO’s increasing involvement in the Ukraine war. The statement was translated and featured in national media reports.

He specifically cited the “increased number of US strategic drone missions flown over the Black Sea” and described that the aircraft “conduct reconnaissance and provide targeting data for weapons, which Western nations supply to conduct strikes on Russian objects.”

“Such flights increase the probability that incidents may happen in airspace involving Russian military aircraft and the risk of a direct confrontation of the alliance with the Russian Federation,” defense chief Belousov warned additionally.

“NATO members will be held responsible in the event of any such incident,” the defense ministry statement added. Possibly Russia could down another NATO drone over the Black Sea in order to send a ‘message’.

The warning comes days after the deadly Crimean beach attack which involved Ukraine utilizing its US-supplied ATACMS systems, and also as Kiev is set to receive F-16 fighter jets from European allies.

Russia warns the US that its reconnaissance drone flights over the Black Sea raise the risk of “direct confrontation” between Moscow and NATO https://t.co/147tXwcNo5

— TRT World (@trtworld) June 28, 2024

The jets are expected to be transferred at some point this summer, but already Kiev says it could keep many of them at NATO bases outside Ukraine, such as in Poland or Romania.

President Putin himself has directly warned that any base from which a jet used to attack Russian forces is launched could come under attack, even if it is not in Ukraine.

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

A Los Angeles federal jury has ordered the National Football League (NFL) to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages over antitrust violations relating to its “Sunday Ticket” programming.

The verdict was delivered in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California on June 27 after less than a day of deliberations.

It followed a trial that included testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Roughly $4.7 billion in damages was awarded to residential “Sunday Ticket” subscribers and $96 million to commercial subscribers such as restaurants and bars. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.

The ruling stemmed from a class action lawsuit filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco alleging the league “conspired” with distributor DirecTV to raise prices for the “Sunday Ticket” package, which allows viewers to watch out-of-market games but requires them to purchase access to a bundle of games to do so.

The complaint covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the “Sunday Ticket” package from DirecTV, or its subsidiaries, at any time between 2011 and 2022.

Plaintiffs argued that the package effectively “results in the blackout or unavailability of out-of-market games” unless consumers purchase the “Sunday Ticket” package at inflated prices. They argued that the deal “results in substantial injury to competition” and violates antitrust laws.

“This scheme restricts competition and harms Sunday Ticket purchasers. First, the total elimination of competition allows the NFL, its Teams, and DirecTV to charge supracompetitive monopoly prices, rather than the prices that would exist if the 32 teams were competing for interest and distribution in a free market. Second, Class members must pay for access to all 32 teams’ out-of-market games, even if they are only interested in viewing one or two teams’ games,” plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.

“No other major sports league in America has such a drastic, total elimination of competition in the broadcasting of its games.”

Lawyers for the NFL, in moving to dismiss the lawsuit, had argued the “Sunday Ticket” program was exempt from antitrust scrutiny under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which allowed it to sell its TV rights as a group, despite the NFL consisting of 32 team owners who collectively own all the big TV rights.

The NFL confirmed the ruling on its official website, adding that it was “disappointed” with the jury’s verdict.

“We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket, and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment,” the league said in a statement.

The league noted it plans to appeal the verdict.

If it does, an appeal would go to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then potentially to the Supreme Court.

“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit,” the league said. “We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge [Philip] Gutierrez throughout the trial.”

The lawsuit against the NFL was initially dismissed in 2017 but reinstated by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019.

Judge Philip S. Gutierrez, overseeing the case, ruled last year that it could move forward as a class action suit. He is set to hear post-trial motions on July 31.

The Epoch Times has contacted spokespersons for the NFL and DirecTV for comment.