My latest Op-Ed: If lawmakers want to stop "surveillance pricing," they should ban personalized price increases -- not personalized discounts. MD and CT got that balance right, but NY and NJ risk raising families costs. www.northjersey.com/story/opini...
Adam Kovacevich
@adamkovac.bsky.social
Founder and CEO, Chamber of Progress. Pro-tech Democrat. Ex: Google, Lime.
I was out last week when this new thing ⬇️ launched, but it looks like at least 80% of @LittleTechOrg's members are just @ycombinator portfolio companies. It's YC's portfolio, repackaged as a "trade association." Presumably YC is picking up the costs. x.com/LittleTechO...
The @JudiciaryGOP is holding a hearing Tuesday looking at how Europe's discriminatory Digital Markets Act is spreading around the world. The DMA has resulted in: - Degraded services for European consumers - Less safe apps - Some apps not even launching judiciary.house.gov/committee-a...
Anti-American Antitrust: How Foreign Governments Target U.S. Businesses | House Judiciary Committee Republicans
judiciary.house.gov
It makes sense that rideshare costs more in higher-cost-of-living cities. But four US cities in particular - Las Vegas, L.A., Seattle, and NYC - vastly exceed even the rideshare costs you would expect to see in those cities. medium.com/uber-under-...
It's true that Dem partisans tend to prefer Admin officials drawn from govt, unions, academia, or nonprofits. But independent swing voters consider a biz background as the most positive attribute an appointee could have. The next Dem prez should appoint businesspeople.
The @revolvingdoorDC's whole schtick is to bully Democrats into stocking their Admins with only people from academia, nonprofits, and govt - and blocking business people. But voters *like* that business people will help presidents grow the economy.
This ⬇️ is the project that Meta created and funded to advance app store legislation to: - Hurt its rivals Google and Apple; - Shift liability from itself to app stores; & - Move from defense to offense That's also why it hates @JakeAuch's POPA bill... x.com/DigiChildAl...
MY LATEST: @superwuster and @doctorow's new books claim to defend consumers -- but they're really looking down on them. They treat people like NPCs: Non-Player Consumers. Passive, duped victims of Big Tech. That says more about Wu & Doctorow than it does about tech.
One of the things I hear a lot from tech co's is that they don't love everything Trump is doing, but they genuinely appreciate that they can get a meeting w/ his staff. In contast, Biden's WH ended up adopting @SenWarren's view that Dems should never meet with companies.
A masks-off moment for the "anti-monopolists" when they side with Hollywood studio monopoly rights over fair use -- a pro-competition legal principle that helps AI startups compete vs incumbents. Weaken fair use and you only entrench Big Tech 🤷♂️ x.com/ddayen/stat...
Cory Doctorow's @doctorow"Enshittification" really ought to have been called "Ensheepification." It claims to be pro-consumer, but in truth it perpetuates an elite view of consumers as mindless sheep incapable of judging quality/value for themselves. x.com/linamkhan/s...
NYT's @JuliaAngwin has a new piece out on the Google search case, long on Google panic and short on facts and reality. A few things that jumped out... 🧵
Takeaways on the Google search antitrust remedies: 1. Longtime Google haters wanted Judge Mehta to throw the book at Google. But he was mindful of the precedent from the Microsoft case. 🧵 x.com/nytimes/sta...
Lina Khan (@linamkhan) just got asked the $64,000 question by @SohrabAhmari : If post-neoliberalism was what working class voters wanted, why did Trump stomp Harris among the working class? Of course, Khan can't admit that the whole theory was flawed.
A federal judge is about to hand down "remedies" in Google's big search antitrust trial. Google could be forced to: - Sell Chrome - Share search data with rivals - Stop paying for distribution deals - Let Trump Admin oversee search Here are a few key things to watch for: 🧵
Tim Wu (@superwuster) has a new NYT on the forthcoming Google search antitrust remedies ruling. There are 5 things wrong with his claims. 🧵
Fascinating new data from @EchelonInsights looks at the factions that make up today's parties. One takeaway: though the far left has a huge mindshare within the Dem Staffer Class, it is a shrinking faction within the Dem voter coalition. 🧵 1/
Organized labor's anti-autonomous vehicle playbook: A closer look at the Teamsters' advocacy strategy - on display recently as Massachusetts' legislature considered bills to allow AVs in the state. Let's take a look... 🧵
Donald Trump has long tried to bend U.S. institutions to his will. Now he wants to go even further—by taking control of what Americans see in their Google search results. My new @Newsweek op-ed on why this should alarm everyone ⬇️
The left, backed by foundation $, blamed Trump’s 2016 win on Obama’s pro-biz approach turning off working class voters. Then the left fished its wish w/ Biden & got the anti-biz Admin it wanted. But then...Trump actually *improved* his '16 working class margin in '24. 🧵
I have long felt that some of the loud lefty voices on here care more about shrinking the Dem tent than about beating Republicans. I was curious to see how many of them donated any $ last year to Harris or to any swing-seat Dems. The answer is basically no ⬇️
New "enemy of my enemy is my friend" coalition just dropped ⬇️. Spotify and Match spent years lobbying unsuccessfully to change Apple and Google's app store commissions. Now Meta is pairing up with them to boost their lobbying campaign for app store age verification.
Initial thoughts on the Google ad tech verdict 🧵: 1. Clearly a loss for Google & a win for its ad tech rivals. Some advertisers and publishers backed the case, but I suspect this may turn out negative for them: worse targeting and decreased revenue. x.com/Digiday/sta...
California once led the nation in AV innovation. But when it comes to autonomous trucks, CA policymakers have repeatedly pumped the brakes - while other states have raced ahead. My latest op-ed in the L.A. Daily News on what CA leaders need to do to avoid being left behind ⬇️
Policymakers should try to make tech products, services, and jobs *more* accessible to Americans. But Trump's tariffs are doing the opposite - putting tech opportunity further out of reach. A 🧵: 1/
Trump Administration: We are continuing to sue Ticketmaster for being a monopoly Also the Trump Administration: We are going to insulate Ticketmaster from competition from resellers
New op-ed: NYC's ban on Airbnb led to soaring hotel rates, hitting a record $417/night. At that price, you would expect the room to come with a bedtime story performed by the cast of “Hamilton.” The FTC should challenge this ban as anti-competitive.
A single-party FTC may mean higher likelihood of court losses. Per @M_Ohlhausen, Khan's FTC had setbacks in its party-line cases: MSFT/Activision Meta/Within Noncompetes Anesthesia & Welsh But they won their bipartisan cases: Illumina/Grail Sygenta & Corteva IQVIA & Propel
The folks who think "corporate power" explains all economic problems are upset that @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social and @dkthomp.bsky.social don't also see the world through antitrust-tinted glasses