Tim Wu

Tim Wu

@superwuster.bsky.social

Professor Columbia University & contributing opinion writer for the NY Times. Latest book THE AGE OF EXTRACTION (the rise of the platforms) (Nov 2025) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691177/the-age-of-extraction-by-tim-wu/

7.2K followers30 following178 posts

Maybe the reason Trump seems to hate Denmark, Canada, Norway, Minnesota and Vermont so much is that they are nice, decent places that work pretty well -- in other words, the opposite of everything Trump stands for.

Airlines are required to list their "all-in" prices, instead of tricking you with a $49 bait price and piling on fees, taxes etc at the final point of sale. Seems to me that's a pretty good model for most if not all of the economy.

"Antitrust and Industrial Policy: A Misunderstood Relationship." This is a new draft academic paper I've been working on for a while (serious comments welcome). It suggests that the antitrust regime should be understood as a part of the industrial policy toolkit. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.comAntitrust and Industrial Policy: A Misunderstood Relationship<p>Antitrust and industrial policy have long been understood as separate areas of policy, handled by different officials with different priorities. Superficiall

The paper is intended for scholars and practitioners of strategic economic policy. The paper identifies three mechanisms for strengthening domestic industry: direct aid, support, and discipline. Antitrust can be used for discipline, by requiring competition instead of collusion.

Part II is a case study of four 20th century U.S. tech industries: automotive, aerospace, computing and telecommunications. Differential antitrust treatment of the four industries helps explain differing industry structures and succession patterns, growth and innovation.

The point of having merger guidelines and structural presumptions is to discourage firms from attempting illegal mergers. Unfortunately Trump has given everyone the impression that they can get their deal through with kickbacks and ass-kissing

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”

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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...

stevevladeck.com174. Justice Gorsuch's Attack on Lower CourtsJust 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.

Mussolini (purportedly) made the trains run on time. If Trump wants a project he should force the freight train industry to provide good & reliable service to American shippers instead of trying to pump their stock prices