Could your free checking accounts, rewards, and cash-back programs be axed by the Federal Reserve? Late last year, the Federal Reserve proposed a rule to lower the cap on transaction fees businesses pay to financial institutions on every debit card swipe, also known as “interchange fees.” These are the small fees that banks and credit unions charge merchants for using their payment rails to get paid. As…
When we think of American energy, we conjure up images of oil drillers, refineries, pipelines, and end products we put into our cars or the plastic products we use daily. There are millions of jobs and billions of products sourced from energy production that make our society abundant and wealthy. That’s especially true today under President Joe Biden, as production of both oil and gas…
Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, a bipartisan group of US House legislators introduced a bill that would force ByteDance Ltd. to sell its US version of TikTok or face massive fines and federal investigations. This would have big ramifications for the video-sharing app, which is estimated to have over 150 million users in the US. In practice, HR7521 designates the popular social media application TikTok as a “foreign adversary controlled application,”…
While I was in Washington, D.C., I spoke to freedom maximalist and “Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff” author Matt Kibbe about online privacy and the Internet, the Kids Online Safety Act, Bitcoin and its enemies, central bank digital currencies, and the weaponization of the FTC. It was published on the Kibbe On Liberty RSS podcast feed and YouTube page. Won’t someone please…
I joined Stephen Kent on WIBC 93.1 to break down the case for a bill blocking the use of CBDC’s in Indiana. Sen. Eric Koch introduced Senate Bill 180 (SB180) to prohibit state agencies from accepting payments made with a central bank digital currency for any service, tax, license, permit, fee, information, or other amount due the governmental body. It would also bar government agencies…
When iPhone users see a green bubble pop up in their text messages, it has a way of dulling the experience. Emoji reactions, Facetime video calls, or even high-quality images over WiFi are immediately broken once a green-bubbled Android user slides into a group thread. This is the reality of Apple’s iMessage protocol, the default messaging app for its users. These consumers enjoy end-to-end encryption,…
Washington, D.C. – This week, a bipartisan cohort of US Senators unveiled a new version of the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill that aims to impose various restrictions and requirements on technology platforms used by both adults and minors. Yaël Ossowski, deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. responded: “This bill is constitutionally dubious and would…
Richmond, VA – In the name of “safety” and the “best interests” of children, the Virginia Senate this week passed a draconian age-verification bill for online platforms which would require youth who want to use social media to provide exhaustive proof of their age and to seek parental consent. This legislation is not as common-sense as its backers would have voters believe. SB 359 outlines…
Since when do government agencies applaud business deals that fall apart, resulting in hundreds of layoffs and loss opportunities for consumers who depend on those products? That’s what happened earlier this month, when the Federal Trade Commission issued a press release applauding the failed $1.7 billion acquisition of the technology firm iRobot by the ecommerce giant Amazon. The FTC, as well as Democratic Senators and…
February 5, 2024 – On February 2, the European Union’s ambassadors green lit the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). Next week, the Internal Market and Civil Liberties committees will decide its fate, while the European Parliament is expected to cast their vote in plenary session either in March or April. The European Commission addressed a plethora of criticism on the AI Act’s potential to stifle…