UNITED STATES – June 11: Sen. Charles Grassley, R-IA., and Sen. Amy Klobucher, D-MN., before the start of a full committee hearing on the nominations of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. and Stuart Delery to be assistant attorney general for the Civil Division at the Department of Justice on June 11, 2013. (Photo by Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)
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What would $10,000 invested in Apple twenty years ago be worth today? Tick tock, tick tock. The answer is about $1.3 million.
Apple’s remarkable 13,142% return since 2006 is calling for the attention of US Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and others who want to pass the flawed American Innovation and Online Choice Act (AICOA). Focusing on Apple’s stock price, along with Google and Meta, would potentially save the Senators from a major legislative blunder.
To see why, consider AICOA’s intent. It is an antitrust bill created to prevent the biggest digital platforms from abusing their market power. In particular, it focuses on “gatekeeper” companies that operate “dominant platforms” to prevent them from allegedly harming would-be competitors. The arrogance of the legislation is shocking.
It can be found not only in Apple’s remarkable performance since 2006. Consider Google shares. They increased by 1,700% in the same time period. Meta has been public since 2012 and its shares have risen 1,664% since then.
What the comebacks convey strongly to the Senators is that few saw their success coming. The previous claim is not speculation, rather it is fact.
The simple, essential truth about stock markets is that they are forward-looking. The returns of Apple, Google, and Meta over twenty, twenty, and fourteen years show that investors completely missed just how much all three were poised to achieve.
That’s because investors never, ever wait to price in a company’s future if they already know it. The preceding truth rates the substantive thinking of Senators Klobuchar and Grassley. Their legislation is very aggressively aimed at punishing Apple, Google and Meta for succeeding against great odds. The legislation itself is wrong and for obvious reasons. Government should not be in the business of punishing achievement.
Except there’s more. As demonstrated once again by the stock price returns of the companies mentioned, the present is a poor predictor of the future. In fact, the present provides few clues as Apple, Google and Meta once again remind us. In other words, if Klobuchar and Grassley had introduced their legislation twenty years ago, they would have had completely different goals. The same fourteen years ago.
What 2026 tells us, and as Klobuchar and Grassley try to quickly pass legislation meant to banish the present, is that AICOA is almost certainly looking backwards. In business, tomorrow is another century.
It is important that we see it now. Klobuchar and Grassley first introduced AICOA not in 2026, but on October 18, 2021. Consider the number. It is says. Exactly one year, one month and twelve days after Senators filed their legislation, ChatGPT went live. Take it?
The senators apparently don’t, and that’s the problem. Just like no one saw Apple, Google and Meta coming, neither did ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or Gemini. Technology moves fast. Too soon for regressive legislation that should not be allowed to pass.
