When Companies Run the Courts: How Corporate Power Becomes Legal Power (with Brendan Ballou)

We like to think that if a company cheats us, steals our wages, or breaks the law, we can take them to court. Unfortunately, there’s a good chance you’ve already signed that right away. This week, Brendan Ballou returns to the podcast to explain how forced arbitration created what he calls America’s secret justice system—and why this is as much an economic story as a legal one. He joins Paul and Goldy to unpack how corporations use economic power to weaken workers’ and consumers’ legal power, why the myth of the “voluntary contract” falls apart when every option comes with the same fine print, and how making corporate misconduct harder to challenge changes the incentives that shape the entire market. Brendan Ballou is the founder of the Public Integrity Project, a nonprofit anti-corruption law firm, and the author of When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America’s Secret Justice System. Further reading:  When Companies Run the Courts: How Forced Arbitration Became America’s Secret Justice System  Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America Pitchfork Economics: Stop the Steal: Revisiting Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America (with Brendan Ballou) Public Integrity Project  Social Media: @brendanballou.bsky.social Instagram: @brendanballou Substack: @brendanballou @brendanballou Ask Pitchfork: Have a question for Nick, Goldy, or the show? Leave it in the comments on YouTube or Spotify with #askpitchfork. Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Facebook: Pitchfork Economics Podcast Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics TikTok: @pitchfork_econ YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer Substack: The Pitch Nick’s Substack: NickHanauer.Substack.com