Taylor Swift fans + the US Congress vs. Ticketmaster: Online event ticketing giant TIcketmaster is facing calls that it be investigated by the US Justice Department for monopolistic behavior, after scores of Taylor Swift fans complained about not being able to get tickets to the star’s Eras tour, Reuters reports. Ticketmaster ws forced to shut down booking for the tour — Swift’s first in five years — after the site was overwhelmed by some 3.5 bn ticket requests from fans, bots, and scalpers alike. Disappointed Swifites inundated their representatives in Congress with complaints, reigniting a yearslong debate about whether the company’s 2010 merger with LiveNation should have been prevented on antitrust grounds.

“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in. Break them up,” US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter and followed with another tweet linking an online petition calling for the DOJ to split up the company.

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A tougher economy means employers are increasingly stepping in to help staff with their finances— but some are warning of an ethical gray area, the Financial Times reports. Big employers in the UK and US are offering financial advice and plans to help their staff manage their debt, negotiating better energy and phone bill plans on their behalf, or helping them directly with interest-free loans. In one example, British retailer Timpson has disbursed over GBP 450k in no-interest loans to its employees as it looks to help them weather the cost of living crisis amid a high-rate environment. “We don’t want [employees] to struggle and go to a loan shark or a payday lender,” said Timpson’s “happiness director,” who estimates she spends a third of her working week helping staff with financial worries.

All part of the cultural shift in the world of work? The move is indicative of a wider trend since the pandemic, the FT says, where ties between employee and employer have become increasingly personal. Workers expect executive boards to take more responsibility for their wellbeing and play a role in a wider range of issues from childcare to mental health. From management’s point of view, deepening these ties is good for loyalty and productivity.

The downsides: Some say employers looking to help alleviate the impact of the cost of living crisis on their employees should raise salaries instead of offering loans. Others are raising privacy concerns about handing over your financial data to your boss. Then there are the awkward questions of what happens when you want to leave a company to whom you owe money — or if you default on a loan owed to your employers.