Blog - Page 25

What we’ve got with this worsening recession is a political failure, not a market failure. A clueless partial truth from the one man who can do more than anyone to restore faith in the economy or bankrupt the nation: “You know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.” Jim Cramer sums it up: …Obama has undeniably made things worse by creating an atmosphere of fear and panic rather than an atmosphere of calm and hope. He’s done it by pushing a huge amount of change at a Read More ›

Chicago-based Heartland Institute has published a booklet by myself and George Gilder entitled Ten Principles of Telecom Reform. In the booklet we explain why it would be a good idea for legislators to: Repeal discriminatory taxes and fees on telecom services Oppose “network neutrality” regulations Reduce intrastate access charges on telephone calls End requirements that telcos file tariffs Give providers greater freedom to set prices Exempt competitive services from utility commission jurisdiction End or reform carrier-of-last-resort and build-out obligations Minimize government’s role in broadband deployment Give a single agency responsibility for consumer protection

From a recent column in the New York Times: “You almost feel sorry for Google,” said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land. “They’re doing a good job and people are turning to them. But when they pass 70 percent share, people are going to be uncomfortable about Google becoming a monopoly.” * * * *”I have no beef with Google,” said Jeff Atwood, a co-founder of Stack Overflow. “I like Google. But I’m concerned. If you project this trend forward four years, just follow the graph. A world in which there is no competition strikes me as unhealthy.” It is clear from the column that nobody is accusing Google of unfairly sabotaging its competitors; in fact, it Read More ›

The Rocky Mountain News published its last edition, the San Francisco Chronicle may be next and unfortunately this may be just the beginning. Rush Limbaugh says “[w]e haven’t even gotten close to how bad it was in the 1970s. We haven’t gotten close to the recession in 1982.” Yet within the newsrooms of America it is a different story; it is a Depression for the employees of newspapers, and they are the people from whom the rest of us get the news and the spin. Slate editor Michael Kinsely points out that the harsh truth is that the typical American newspaper is an anachronism. It is an artifact from a time when chopping down trees was essential to telling the Read More ›

George Gilder and I have completed a study of legacy telecommunications regulation in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. We have previously examined the same types of outdated regulation in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. In this paper, we update our previous analysis and shift our focus to a different region with its own unique legacy. The traditional rationale for utility regulation — i.e., that fixed landline telephone service is a natural monopoly — is gone. Lawmakers must face the reality that continued reliance on utility regulation is not only unnecessary but will harm consumers by distorting competition. A survey of the Southeastern states indicates that significant and harmful vestiges of legacy regulation Read More ›

Over at TVNewsday, Harry A. Jessell writes I don’t like the way the new FCC is shaping up. There’s something missing. My concern has nothing to do with Julius Genachowski, whom the president has reportedly tapped for chairman…. What I’m having trouble with are the names popping up for the Republican seat…. All [the rumored candidates] work or used to work on Capitol Hill. They are basically experts on policymaking, crafting legislation and Washington politics, but not much else. The seat is turning into a reward for loyalty and a test of whose boss has the most clout. Bad idea. As the professed champion of business, the Republicans should award the seat to a businessman or a businesswoman. I’m talking Read More ›

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Commerce Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, I hear, have received approximately one dozen recommendations for filling the vacant seat on the FCC which, by law, must be filled by a Republican. Although the president will make the appointment, the views of the Senate Republican Leader, in particular, are usually accorded significant weight. The most prominent candidates include Lee Carosi Dunn (Senator McCain’s assistant for communications policy), Brian Hendricks (Hutchison’s assistant for communications policy), Ajit Pai (Senator Brownback’s assistant for judiciary matters) and two officials from the Bush administration (David Gross, ambassador for international communications and information policy; and Meredith Baker, former acting assistant secretary of commerce for telecommunications and information policy). All sound Read More ›

Wall Street Journal columnist Gordon Crovitz writes that In Japan, wireless technology works so well that teenagers draft novels on their cellphones. People in Hong Kong take it for granted that they can check their BlackBerrys from underground in the city’s subway cars. Even in France, consumers have more choices for broadband service than in the U.S.

 The Internet may have been developed in the U.S., but the country now ranks 15th in the world for broadband penetration. For those who do have access to broadband, the average speed is a crawl, moving bits at a speed roughly one-tenth that of top-ranked Japan. This means a movie that can be downloaded in a couple of seconds in Japan takes half Read More ›

The Senate version of the stimulus package (H.R. 1) winding its way through Congress would provide $9 billion in direct public subsidy for broadband network deployment subject to a “non-discrimination” requirement which, like the “open access” requirement in the House bill, could turn into onerous “network neutrality” regulation (see previous post). Meanwhile, Britain has outlined its digital transition plans in “Digital Britain – Interim Report.” It is interesting to compare the substantially more free-market direction Britain is taking with the silly approach our own Congress is considering. For one thing, Britain is going to let private investors finance network upgrades. The Government is not persuaded that there is a case now for widespread UK-wide public subsidy for Next Generation Network Read More ›

An interesting report, “Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency” by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, focusing primarily on numerous process improvements within the executive branch. Process is important, of course, but I have never been convinced process is a substitute for the content of human hearts. According to the report, the government should make “strong authentication of identity, based on robust in-person proofing and through verification of devices, a mandatory requirement for critical cyber infrastructures,” but consumers should be protected from businesses and other services who might require strong government-issued or commercially issued credentials for all online activities (this could be done by requiring businesses to adopt a risk-based approach to credentialing). Well, goodness. I guess some might Read More ›