Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” in 2022, though it was hardly a new phenomenon even then. In granting apps the right to wield the absurdities of intellectual property law to legally bully their users, the government emboldened tech founders to view their companies as exempt from laws and regulations.
Maureen Tkacik
Maureen Tkacik is investigations editor at the Prospect and a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Sugar Daddies
From the Havemeyer Sugar Trust to Allen Dulles to Jeffrey Epstein, the MAGA billionaire Fanjul family are the welfare barons of all time.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Foot Soldiers of the Trump Mafiacracy
Pam Bondi’s underling in Nevada allowed an Israeli caught in an underage sex sting operation to return home. Her biggest campaign donors also once fled to Israel to avoid arrest.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Making America Epstein Again
Trump’s transactional ethics are making the U.S. a refuge for criminals. This mirrors something Israel has done for years.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Meet the Disaster Capitalists Behind Alligator Alcatraz
Incompetent and militarized ‘emergency response’ is on track to be a trillion-dollar industry by the end of Trump’s second term.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Hardly Workin’
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on life support, and consumer scam complaints are surging as a result. The Trump administration wants to pull the plug.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
‘So Much Evil Had To Happen for this Bill To Pass’
Oregon just made corporate medicine illegal, again. Here’s how it happened.
Posted inEconomic Policy
One of the Dreamliners That Gave a Boeing Manager Nightmares Just Crashed
Whistleblowers always warned that passengers would pay a price for Boeing’s tyrannical corner-cutting, especially with the planes shipped overseas.
Posted inAmerica and the World
The Humanitarian Aid Shooting Galleries in Gaza
The lessons no one learned from the World Central Kitchen massacre(s)
Posted inEconomic Policy
Usury in the Water
There’s never been a better time to be a loan shark for small businesses.