New newsletter: Antitrust critics of Abundance claim homebuilding oligopolies are holding back supply and driving up prices. I did something simple. I called up their sources. Everyone I spoke to told me the same thing: Their claims are bullshit.

Several months ago, Basel Musharbash wrote a very long article on Matt Stoller’s site about how Dallas had become a homebuilding oligopoly. Some details from the piece struck me as odd. So I called up the people he cited in his essay and just talked to them. Here’s what they told me. 1. The key oligopoly researcher Musharbash cites told me that his theories had been badly misapplied. 2. The two housing analysts that Musharbash quotes most frequently told me he distorted their points 3. A leading monopoly researcher I spoke to, whose work has been celebrated by the antitrust left, told me that the entire thrust of the article—and much of the antitrust-housing thesis—defied standard monopoly analysis You better believe I have the receipts.