It’s rather remarkable, really, how willing federal bureaucrats are to block business deals that they speculate will cause price hikes and yet give nary a thought to foisting more than a trillion dollars annually in regulatory costs on the public. That’s one takeaway from the news that AT&T has scrapped its proposed $39 billion acquisition of struggling T-Mobile USA (from Deutsche Telekom AG) after a bruising nine-month battle with the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission. Bureaucrats at both agencies concluded that the deal could (maybe, perhaps) hurt … More
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America’s $15 trillion debt is soaring. Some 13.3 million Americans are unemployed. The economy is stagnant. Regulations are weighing down job creation. But hey, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are taking action to truly set America back on the right path: They’re making sure that television commercials aren’t too loud! CNN reports: Television commercials that are a lot louder than the program will be prohibited under rules adopted Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission. “Under our new rules, TV providers must ensure that the average loudness of commercials will … More
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The federal government owns vast assets that would be better managed and more productive in the hands of the private sector. Selling some of these makes sense to reduce debt, reduce the deficit, and help shrink our bloated government. However, selling assets is often abused as another Washington ploy that claims to reduce the deficit but becomes a ruse for more spending. There is real money to be had from the sales. Public lands. Unused buildings. And the ever-popular “spectrum auctions” that take bids for the right to use different … More
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