Tim Wu

In a sign of how times have changed, in 1959 economists Turner and Keysen proposed a commission to breakup firms "where, for 5 years or more, one company has accounted for 50 percent or more of annual sales in the market, or four or fewer companies have accounted for 80 percent of sales”

Opinion | The Bad Reasoning in the Meta Antitrust Ruling Isn’t Even the Worst Part

My take on the ruling in the antitrust case against Facebook (Meta) - gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

Amazing semi-lost letter from Theodore Roosevelt denouncing paid critics of antitrust and "law-defying corporations of immense wealth who ... expect[] others to treat them beyond and above any possible check from law"

Tim Wu: The Age of Extraction Can we reclaim control of our economy to make it work for everyone? What needs to be understood about the big tech platforms before that could even be attempted? Tim Wu has a plan. Wu, a scholar and t...

Last chance to catch book event in SF this evening -- www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-...

Click. Scroll. Surrender. Tim Wu Warns Against The Rise of Big Data in 'The Age of Extraction' | KQED Airdate: Monday, November 10 at 10 AM Our digital lives are increasingly dominated by a handful of powerful tech platforms. Once promising prosperity and democracy, the internet has instead allowed co...

Had a great show today on my fave radio show from when I lived in SF -- KQED Forum -- listen here.
www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

The craziest thing about the Senate D capitulation is that the Trump administration was taking the blame and showing weakness in so many ways, including losing elections. What a time to fold!

In San Francisco and experiencing that feeling when you realize you've been exposed to way too much propaganda. I mean ut has always had bad areas but remains a beautiful and vibrant city to stroll around in.

Teachout: Cuomo's economic policy 'boils down to favors' ALBANY-Appearing for the first time at the Capitol, a pair of law professors unleashed a critique of Governor Andrew Cuomo that will serve as the foundation for their Democratic primary challenge.

Eleven years ago Zephyr Teachout and I ran a campaign against Cuomo to uproot the corruption he had brought to New York and his lack of respect for the democratic process. Yesterday was a good day! www.politico.com/states/new-y...

🎧 New on Winging It: I talk with Prof Tim Wu @superwuster.bsky.social, author of the new book "The Age of Extraction" — how the Internet went from great promise to an extraction dynamic, what it means for #AI policy, & how to build a fairer digital economy.🤖

Link: open.spotify.com/episode/0ZL5...

Wish this was a better photo of Barry Lynn, Lina Khan, myself and Jonathan Kanter but it certainly captures a lot of recent anti-monopoly thinking in one frame

Tim Wu Tim Wu author page

Book tour starting next week -- coming to a city near you (probably)
timwu.net#booktour

Review | Don’t be duped by the biggest buffet in Las Vegas Caesars Palace promises a luxury buffet for $107. It still values quantity over quality.

The American framers and thinkers of that time were so well versed in Roman history and the dynamics that led republics to perpetual dictatorship -- this generation more likely to think the problem with Caesar is that the buffet is overpriced

www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/...

Thank! I have appreciated your interest, though this one tbh isn't media history

Opinion | Big Tech’s Predatory Platform Model Doesn’t Have to Be Our Future

NY Times essay adapted from my new book, "The Age of Extraction." Gift link here: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/o...

If you are around Oxford (UK) I'm giving a talk at the law school this Thursday at 12 at the IECL seminar room. Topic is: "The Servile State revisited" -- it is reconsideration of distributism as an alternative to brutal capitalism and communism. Open to public

I used to work in the NY AG's office. The federal indictment of Letitia James is disgusting and embarrassing. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

What’s Wrong With Las Vegas?

Las Vegas is a microcosm of the broader US economy. Mergers have led to duopoly/oligopoly. A corporate extraction imperative leads to price hikes where hotels / casinos to target big spenders. Short-term profit but longterm cost to the broader ecosystem
nytimes.com/2025/10/01/t...

Business has long depended on emotional attachment as strategy to create switching costs. (E.g., Cadillac). Seems utterly obvious that despite their ethical commitments, the intentional engineering of AIs to generate human emotional attachment will soon be mainstream.

If the shutdown yields nothing, when health insurance premiums soar as projected, who do Republicans think Americans will blame? Obama?

Finalized my 2025 book tour!

Coming through New York, DC, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Oxford and Cambridge. Click here for details:
timwu.net#booktour

For my new book, THE AGE OF EXTRACTION, here is the UK cover and the USA cover. Curious which people prefer.

From last week's meeting of winning progressive campaigns in UK/Canada/Australia

- Left-leaning parties need tap into national pride, specifically concerning healthcare or threats to economic wellbeing;

- Focus on affordability and economics essential; must resist distractions.

It is weird and not healthy to begin every day wondering:

"What outrageous thing will the U.S. government do today? Will it be unethical, unconstitutional, or all of the above?"

The lack of any real Republican objection to the open and explicit abuse of the DoJ to target a political enemy is terrifying

Here in London listening to the PMs of England, Canada, Iceland and Australia gives a real sense of hope

The Extraction Imperative: that the highest purpose of business lies not in creating value but finding novel ways to take more money and intangible assets from everyone else; i.e., achieving full use of every iota of market power.

Opinion | Conservatives defend transgender rights — to bear arms Conservatives protest a Justice Department idea to bar transgender people from gun ownership.

Pick your poison in this debate: absolutist gun rights advocates or haters of transgender people?

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Google remedy order is a paradox. Says "Google cannot use the same anticompetitive playbook for its GenAI products that it used for Search." But it then says payments for default placement are fine? The government should appeal the remedy order.

Opinion | Google Could Get Broken Up This Week. Here’s What It Would Mean.

The most important question about the Google remedy just released is whether it will effectively prevent Google from pushing Gemini on distributors / everyone www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...

174. Justice Gorsuch's Attack on Lower Courts Just like the earlier rulings that Justice Gorsuch claims lower courts are defying, his concurrence in the NIH grant cutoffs case would be a lot more convincing if it showed more of its work.

This Supreme Court is a weird mix of activist and cowardly: they know that the President is violating the Constitution and precedent, but don’t want to get on his bad side, so they signal party loyalty by beating up on district court judges. www.stevevladeck.com/p/174-justic...