Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Monopolies Are Not Taking a Fifth of Your Wages

President Biden, as part of his executive order on competition, directed the US Department of Treasury to report “on the effects of lack of competition on labor markets.” In March 2022, the Treasury released a report, “The State of Labor Market Competition,” concluding that “a careful review of credible academic studies places the decrease in wages [due to labor market power] at roughly 20 percent relative to the level in a fully competitive market.” Progressives use the report to justify much more aggressive antitrust enforcement, including in merger review, even though it presents virtual

Broadband Myths: Do ISPs Engage in “Digital Redlining?”

Some activists have begun to frame location-based broadband discrepancies in racial terms, accusing Internet service providers (ISPs) of “digital redlining.” But an analysis of Census data and facts on the ground has found that the “digital redlining” narrative—while an emotion-triggering term—does not stand up to scrutiny.

The Looming Cost of a Patchwork of State Privacy Laws

In the absence of a comprehensive federal law, a handful of large states have passed or begun to enact data privacy legislation. More states are likely to pass similar laws in the coming years, which would create a patchwork of different and sometimes conflicting state privacy laws regulating the commercial collection and use of personal data.

Anticorporate Broadband Populists’ Real Agenda: Destroy the Current Private-Sector System

Animated by hostility toward corporations and a belief that broadband should be a public utility, populists seek to overthrow the current system and replace it with one in which government provides broadband or tightly regulates it. Their campaign strategy is to convince policymakers and the public that US broadband is a failure so they can build support for policies to weaken corporate providers and strengthen non-corporate alternatives, including government-run networks.