Know It All - The Industry - Telecom in Tough Times: The Big Will Get Bigger

"Following the shock of the last bubble popping, he says, these companies were conservative in managing their balance sheets, so their free cash flow is high and they are not strapped for credit. "Network expansion plans could be delayed in some cases, but they remain on track."The scarcity of credit, though, is squeezing vendors, who rely heavily on R&D, and who face price-conscious customers and demands that they share risks and costs on big projects."

Know It All - The Industry - Telecom in Tough Times: The Big Will Get Bigger

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Debt Man Walking

"For decades, the United States has relied on a tortuous financial arrangement that knits together its economy with those of China and Japan. This informal system has allowed Asian countries to run huge export surpluses with the United States, while allowing the United States to run huge budget deficits without having to raise interest rates or taxes, and to run huge trade deficits without abruptly depreciating its currency. I couldn't find a single instance of Obama discussing this issue, but it has been an obsession of bankers, international economists, and high officials like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. They think this informal system contributed to today's financial crisis. Worse, they fear that its breakdown could turn the looming downturn into something resembling the global depression of the 1930s."

Debt Man Walking

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A Search Engine With an Eye for Videos - WSJ.com

"When it works, VideoSurf is one of those technologies that make you wonder why someone didn't think of it sooner. The site aggregates content from about 60 sources, including YouTube, CNN Video, Hulu, ESPN and Comedy Central, and a sorting tool weeds out unwanted results like the irksome slideshows that are labeled as videos. VideoSurf can find videos on all kinds of subjects, but it really shines when it finds well-known people."

A Search Engine With an Eye for Videos - WSJ.com

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The New Washington Tech Agenda

"Since technology is the key to virtually all of President-elect Barack Obama's plans for sweeping changes in the direction of the country and the way Washington does business with its citizens, it is not surprising Obama brings a decidedly different technology agenda to the White House than President Bush did eight years ago.Bush praised technology as a key driver of the economy and worked to remove government barriers such as laws, rules and regulations to let the free market make its decisions on winners and losers. Obama, though, embraces technology as the path to innovation and the future and plans to invest heavily in technology as the key to reviving the economy."

The New Washington Tech Agenda

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Lawmaker Plans Bill on Web Neutrality

Sen. "Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, believes a law is essential to prevent telephone and cable companies from discriminating against Internet content, even though regulators have taken actions to enforce free Web principles, a top Dorgan aide said on Thursday."We feel that legislation is definitely necessary," said Frannie Wellings, telecom counsel to Dorgan, speaking at a University of Nebraska law school event on changes in telecom law after the election of Democrat Barack Obama."

Lawmaker Plans Bill on Web Neutrality

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NAB Show - Digital Media Industry Event for Audio, Video, Film & Communications Professionals

NAB Show - Digital Media Industry Event for Audio, Video, Film & Communications Professionals

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A New Inconvenient Truth

"Nobel prize winner Al Gore shifted from his longstanding focus on regulating carbon pollution to advocating direct government investments in clean energy as the best way to deal with climate change. Gore is the country's most prominent spokesperson on climate change and a shift in his thinking in reaction to new economic and political circumstances is highly significant."

A New Inconvenient Truth

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Op-Ed Contributor - What’s Good for G.M. Is Good for the Army - NYTimes.com

General Clark on the importance of the automobile manufacturers.

Op-Ed Contributor - What’s Good for G.M. Is Good for the Army - NYTimes.com

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Know It All - - Local Area Networks: How the Obama Campaign Works on the Ground

Know It All - - Local Area Networks: How the Obama Campaign Works on the Ground

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10 Weeks of Financial Turmoil - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

10 Weeks of Financial Turmoil - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

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The Patriot Tax: We Need a Price Floor for Gasoline

In 2001, the Congress passed the Orwellian-sounding Patriot Act, a Faustian bargain, requiring Americans giving up privacy rights in exchange for increased security. It's time to put an ironic twist on that euphemism by passing a Patriot tax, a gas tax to help transform the transportation grid into a petrol-free zone.

The benefit of a Democratic win in November 2008 will be a more serious discussion of the use of taxes. Granted no one likes taxes but, as Republicans like to say, when you tax something, you get less of it. And we need less burning of fossil fuels.

Consequently, we need to tax gasoline. I think we need to implement an additional $1 dollar per gallon tax in 2010 and increase it a dollar a year until 2020.

This would be considered a regressive tax but we could rebate people at the end of the year. Say $200 a year for people making over $100,000 and $250 for those making less than $100,000 and $300 for those making less than $50,000. This would reduce the amount of oil people burn while also providing an economic stimulus.

Most importantly, a predictable, dependable price floor will lay the foundation for the renewable energy industries and technologies that will reduce the US trade deficit and help save the planet.

Capitalism Needs a Purpose

I visited President Clinton's office in Harlem yesterday to talk about some potential digital projects. Unfortunately he was not there as we were working with some of his people, but on the way home I was thinking about an interview he did recently with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in the same office for her Wall Street Journal Report. While the ex-President is brilliant on a number of topics, his instincts on the economy are probably the most notable. During his administration, the US experienced a phenomenal economic expansion and no doubt his instincts were refined by the incredible success of the e-commerce revolution due to the commercialization of the Internet. When asked if former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan was to blame for the current credit crisis because the Fed left interest rates so low, he had this to say.

The real problem was that good money at low prices didn't have a lot of options apart from housing, or other real estate. Because there was not enough other growth. I believe that if we had started a serious energy policy six years ago, we might still be in this fix, but it wouldn't have been nearly as bad. Cause we would have had whole other range of other things for people to invest money in, areas for people to work in, and less incentive for people to move this money in every more clever ways, just through the same old hole in real estate.

Clinton's government witnessed and benefited from the IT/dot.com revolution. More important he saw the decisive role an activist administration played in propelling the movement. Not through massive government intervention but by hyping the technologies and setting up the conditions for competition in this new industry and letting the investment flow in. Capitalism needs a purpose. It needs direction and cheerleading. Prime the pump then let the market churn out the details.