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VOICE ARCHIVE

Megan McArdle

@asymmetricinfo
21 posts
2026-01-12
The problem with a wealth tax is that people move to avoid it. Folks proposing this tax had a clever idea to avoid that: backdate tax to Jan 1st, put it on Nov. ballot. So the billionaires are moving now, and California may lose their tax revenue even if the initiative fails.
2026-01-12 View on X
New York Times

Sources and filings: Peter Thiel donated $3M to a group to beat California's wealth tax proposal, the first of several expected tech leader donations in 2026

More large donations from wealthy Silicon Valley figures are expected as they try to marshal opposition to a proposed ballot measure …

2025-12-18
Well, that explains why they've been making noises about banning US chips.
2025-12-18 View on X
Reuters

Sources: China built a working prototype of an EUV machine in early 2025 with a team of former ASML engineers who reverse-engineered the company's EUV machines

In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent …

2025-05-17
Every time one of these stories drops, I am once again enraptured by the question of why the hell people fake the kind of ground-breaking research that will definitely get them caught when their fellow scientists scramble to replicate it.
2025-05-17 View on X
Wall Street Journal

MIT says it no longer stands behind a widely circulated research paper by its student that claimed an AI tool boosted discoveries in a materials science lab

The university says it has no confidence in a widely circulated paper by an economics graduate student

2023-03-18
Basically the Uber playbook. Problem: their most devoted fans are young people who can't/don't vote. https://twitter.com/...
2023-03-18 View on X
Politico

Source: TikTok is paying dozens of creators to visit DC next week and lobby lawmakers against a forced sale, ahead of CEO Shou Zi Chew's testimony on March 23

Hailey Fuchs / Politico :

Basically the Uber playbook. Problem: their most devoted fans are young people who can't/don't vote. https://twitter.com/...
2023-03-18 View on X
Wall Street Journal

Sources: some lawmakers and tech executives like Peter Thiel are mobilizing against China's involvement in US tech, ahead of the TikTok CEO's US House testimony

Group to meet ahead of TikTok's testimony before Congress  —  A group of Silicon Valley executives, including investor Peter Thiel …

2022-05-25
Now we're suddenly interested in location data collection? https://twitter.com/...
2022-05-25 View on X
CNBC

In a letter, 42 Democratic lawmakers urge Google to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary user data that could be used to identify people seeking abortions

Lauren Feiner / CNBC :

2022-04-26
The first thing to point out is that this deal makes no financial sense for Elon Musk. He's paying a premium for the stock, the total value of the acquisition is almost a fifth of his net worth, and there's no obvious way he's going to squeeze more money out of Twitter operations
2022-04-26 View on X
CNBC

Twitter agrees to be acquired “by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk” for $54.20 per share in cash; the ~$44B deal requires shareholder and regulatory approval

- Twitter's board accepted billionaire Elon Musk's offer to buy the social media company and take it private, the company confirmed.

2021-06-08
If so, I see two possibilities: 1) The IRS was hacked, which would be a huge scandal, and make you wonder just how many tax returns the hackers have. 2) Employee, which would make you wonder just how bad IRS IT security is, and how good the employee was at covering their tracks
2021-06-08 View on X
ProPublica

Leaked IRS data shows how billionaires manage to pay little in income tax; in 2007 and 2011, Jeff Bezos paid zero income tax, and Elon Musk did the same in 2018

The Secret IRS Files  —  In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world's richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes.

This isn't a case where you could have gotten one person's partial records from an accountant or a disgruntled ex-spouse. Practically speaking, unless all the billionaires have the same tax attorney, I suspect the only place the data could have come from is the IRS itself.
2021-06-08 View on X
ProPublica

Leaked IRS data shows how billionaires manage to pay little in income tax; in 2007 and 2011, Jeff Bezos paid zero income tax, and Elon Musk did the same in 2018

The Secret IRS Files  —  In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world's richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes.

The most exciting thing is wondering who gave them the information, and how long that person will spend in jail when they're caught, as I suspect they will be.
2021-06-08 View on X
ProPublica

Leaked IRS data shows how billionaires manage to pay little in income tax; in 2007 and 2011, Jeff Bezos paid zero income tax, and Elon Musk did the same in 2018

The Secret IRS Files  —  In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world's richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes.

2021-03-31
Substack is becoming a weird hybrid of tech platform, book publisher, and VC: https://blog.substack.com/... I don't know if it will work, but it's going to be fascinating to watch!
2021-03-31 View on X
Substack Blog

Substack raises $65M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz

2021-03-17
There's huge demand for less legible interactions from the most legible and verbal groups in society—tech folks, DC/NY journo/policy types. They're using Clubhouse somewhat the way we used Twitter in the early days. Whether that's enough demand to sustain a business is unclear. https://twitter.com/...
2021-03-17 View on X
Bloomberg

A profile of Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison, who previously had built social apps like Highlight and Shorts that nudged people to share more by default

“He's got more momentum than force,” says a former colleague.  “Paul is just always moving forward.” Tweets: @ellenhuet , @business , @dearsarah , @dearsarah , and @hkanji Tweets: ...

There's huge demand for less legible interactions from the most legible and verbal groups in society—tech folks, DC/NY journo/policy types. They're using Clubhouse somewhat the way we used Twitter in the early days. Whether that's enough demand to sustain a business is unclear. https://twitter.com/...
2021-03-17 View on X
@shaanvp

[Thread] Why Clubhouse will fail: most of the content is “meh” and users will struggle to find interesting live content, leading to low user retention

So... everyone seems to think clubhouse is the “next big thing” - but I think it's going to fail. Here's how I think it all goes down.. Tweets: @shaanvp , @marcelweiss , @serrels ,...

2021-02-15
I assume it wasn't deliberate, but that paragraph is extremely misleading, and should be corrected. https://twitter.com/...
2021-02-15 View on X
New York Times

Examining the links between the Rationalist community, with Slate Star Codex blog as its epicenter, and influential leaders in tech, including OpenAI's founders

even inside newsrooms. This is depraved. https://twitter.com/... Robin Hanson / @robinhanson : “The ideas they exchanged were often controversial — connected to gender, race and in...

I assume it wasn't deliberate, but that paragraph is extremely misleading, and should be corrected. https://twitter.com/...
2021-02-15 View on X
Noahpinion

The NYT overstated the influence of both Slate Star Codex and the Rationalist community on Silicon Valley, and falsely portrayed the tech industry as right-wing

Stereotyping the tech industry as a bunch of secretive right-wingers isn't correct, and it isn't helpful.  —  11 hr ago

2021-02-14
I assume it wasn't deliberate, but that paragraph is extremely misleading, and should be corrected. https://twitter.com/...
2021-02-14 View on X
New York Times

Examining the links between the Rationalist community, with Slate Star Codex blog as its epicenter, and influential leaders in tech, including OpenAI's founders

Slate Star Codex was a window into the psyche of many tech leaders building our collective future.  Then it disappeared.

2021-01-17
Unlike most people, I think Twitter was right not to ban him before, that they are right to ban him now, and that the other side has a good argument on both of these propositions. https://twitter.com/...
2021-01-17 View on X
New York Times

How a group of Dorsey's lieutenants overcame his reluctance to ban Trump's account when it became clear Trump was using his Twitter presence to incite violence

the essence of democracy—but they seem to be neglecting the duties of government officials not to violate human rights and their power to do great harm. https://www.washingtonpost....

Unlike most people, I think Twitter was right not to ban him before, that they are right to ban him now, and that the other side has a good argument on both of these propositions. https://twitter.com/...
2021-01-17 View on X
Washington Post

Analytics firm Zignal Labs: online misinformation about election fraud dropped 73% in the week after several social media sites suspended Trump and key allies

Zignal Labs charts 73 percent decline on Twitter and beyond following historic action against the president

2020-11-17
Greenwald, Sullivan and Yglesias got so big by starting blogs that they could sell to traditional publications. They are not monetizing an audience they acquired through larger institutions, but reclaiming one they created themselves. https://pullquote.com/... https://twitter.com/...
2020-11-17 View on X
Columbia Journalism Review

Profile of Substack, whose founders insist it is a platform, not a media company, and say there is less need for moderation as readers opt in to newsletters

Did a newsletter company create a more equitable media system—or replicate the flaws of the old one? Tweets: @benthompson , @cliomiso , @asymmetricinfo , @can , @bdomenech , @maxwe...

2020-07-28
Big offices complexes aren't going to fill back up until there is a vaccine they can require most of their employees to get. I get why companies trickle this data out incrementally, but if we haven't solved the problem yet, we won't. https://twitter.com/...
2020-07-28 View on X
Wall Street Journal

Sources: Google will extend its work from home policy until at least July 2021, affecting almost 200,000 full-time and contract employees

a year from now — making it the first major U.S. corporation to formalize such an extended timetable. Partly to give staff maximum family flexibility. One year from now. https://ww...