By PPI Press

This morning, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up a series of antitrust bills that, taken together, would stifle digital innovation and hinder the United States in economic competition with China.

Alec Stapp, Director of Technology Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released the following statement:

“Economic concentration in many sectors of the U.S. economy is a serious issue that demands scrutiny and creative responses from lawmakers. Unfortunately these five bills fail to grapple responsibly with this challenge. Instead, they single out a handful of America’s most innovative and globally competitive tech companies for divestiture and…

Today, PPI President Will Marshall released the following statement on the federal recognition of JuneTeenth:

Happy Juneteenth!

With uncharacteristic dispatch this week, Congress passed and President Biden signed a new a bill establishing Juneteenth as a national holiday. It happened so quickly that PPI wasn’t quite prepared to observe it properly, but we will henceforth be closed for business on Juneteenth to commemorate this important date in U.S. history.

On June 19, 1865, Union Army Maj. General Gordon Granger proclaimed the liberation of 250,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas. This reminds us that slavery was the evil which sparked the…

MEMO: June 14, 2021
TO: Pro-Growth Democrats
FROM: PPI President Will Marshall
RE: How to Lose to China

President Joe Biden says that America is locked in a “strategic competition” with China for global economic and political leadership in the 21st century. Keeping the United States on the leading edge of technological innovation and entrepreneurship is how we win this contest between liberal and autocratic systems.

It’s also the key to generating more good jobs that can help our country close stark income and opportunity gaps at home, as well as demonstrating the strength and resilience of liberal democracy to…

New legislative package would be a devastating blow to American technological leadership

Today, Members of the House of Representatives introduced a new package of bills aimed at stifling digital innovation through extreme antitrust legislation.

Alec Stapp, Director of Technology Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) released the following statement:

“The package of bills proposed by Members of the Judiciary Committee would be a devastating blow to American technological leadership at a time when that leadership is more necessary — and more at risk — than ever. While the current system isn’t perfect — the FTC and DOJ urgently need…

By Lindsay Mark Lewis

In an op-ed recently published in USA Today, I urged Congress and the Biden administration to take the simplest, most direct path to universal broadband connectivity by moving past the Far Left’s obsession with government-owned networks and misguided “future proofing” symmetric speed mandates:

There are two paths Congress can take: a relatively simple, direct approach that builds on the strengths of our current broadband ecosystem and closes the digital divide in rural and urban areas with targeted, laser focused subsidies.

Then there is the speculative, over-regulatory approach pushed by some beltway zealots and special interests —…

By Will Marshall, PPI President

This piece was first published in The Hill.

If you think American democracy is worth preserving, you owe Texas Democrats a shout-out. Over the Memorial Day weekend, they thwarted a Republican plot to make it harder for certain citizens of the Lone Star state to vote. These Americans, of course, tend to be Black, Latino, low-income and urban.

The Democrats’ dramatic walk-out from the Texas legislature prevented the Republican majority from ramming through a bill that would drag the state back to the bad old days of Jim Crow. But Gov. …

By Michael Mandel

Tech platforms should be judged on how well they foster consumer welfare, innovation, investment, productivity and job creation. Sometimes these values will conflict with each other, but they provide a good framework for thinking about the benefits and costs of platforms that go beyond the usual antitrust issues.

From that perspective, a recent opinion piece in Wired levies a criticism of the current design of Apple’s App Store that is important, if true. The authors, the legal director of Public Knowledge and then executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness, argue that when “Apple demands 30…

By Alec Stapp

The gig economy has provided opportunities for workers who aren’t able to find or aren’t interested in full-time regular employment. Traditional jobs require workers to show up at a particular location and work a predetermined schedule set by the company. Ride-hailing and delivery gigs allow workers to set their own schedules and work as much or as little as they like. This flexibility is a key component of why independent workers choose to participate in the gig economy. But that doesn’t mean the current arrangement is perfect.

Gig workers often aren’t able to access the benefits that…