"The free Internet plan is the most controversial issue the agency will tackle in December. Mr. Martin shelved plans to consider a wider variety of sticky issues pending at the agency, including a request by the Hollywood studios to hobble TVs and set-top boxes so studios can offer copy-protected theatrical releases sooner."Free Web Plan Being Pushed by FCC Head - WSJ.com
We should tax what we burn, not what we earn.Gore: Don't Count On Magic | Newsweek Future Of Energy | Newsweek.com
Hawaiian Telcom postponed a $26 million interest payment in November and was in the midst of a 30-day grace period, which ended Monday. Hawaiian Telecom is carrying more than $1 billion in debt, the result of financing that was arranged three years ago for the company's $1.6 billion sale to Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm based in Washington, D.C.Hawaiian Telcom files for bankruptcy protection - Forbes.com
President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a deeply experienced team of top economic advisers whose key members firmly believe that limited government spending combined with free markets can create lasting prosperity.
Speech, Bernanke --Deflation-- November 21, 2002
Of course, the U.S. government is not going to print money and distribute it willy-nilly (although as we will see later, there are practical policies that approximate this behavior).8 Normally, money is injected into the economy through asset purchases by the Federal Reserve. To stimulate aggregate spending when short-term interest rates have reached zero, the Fed must expand the scale of its asset purchases or, possibly, expand the menu of assets that it buys. Alternatively, the Fed could find other ways of injecting money into the system--for example, by making low-interest-rate loans to banks or cooperating with the fiscal authorities. Each method of adding money to the economy has advantages and drawbacks, both technical and economic. One important concern in practice is that calibrating the economic effects of nonstandard means of injecting money may be difficult, given our relative lack of experience with such policies. Thus, as I have stressed already, prevention of deflation remains preferable to having to cure it. If we do fall into deflation, however, we can take comfort that the logic of the printing press example must assert itself, and sufficient injections of money will ultimately always reverse a deflation.
"The original Frank Baum story was written as a political allegory of America's entry on to the gold standard in 1879. The strictures of sound money coincided with a vibrant post Civil War economy. The result was deflation: prices fell by 1.7pc pa between 1875 and 1896. The farmer, as depicted by the scarecrow, was held captive by falling agricultural prices and mortgages owed to the big banks, the wicked witch of the east. The spell of tight monetary policy cast a pall over the poor tin woodsman: every time he swung his axe, he chopped off part of his body. It was a depiction of the economy's shuttered and rusting factories."'Encouraged by a wicked wizard, Greenspan, Bernanke toils at his printing press' - Telegraph
"Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his little business, to the tycoons and their dreams of acquiring Hollywood, this city understands money and has no guilt about the getting and spending of it. I once asked a Muslim man living in a shack without indoor plumbing what kept him in the city. “Mumbai is a golden songbird,” he said. It flies quick and sly, and you’ll have to work hard to catch it, but if you do, a fabulous fortune will open up for you. The executives who congregated in the Taj Mahal hotel were chasing this golden songbird. The terrorists want to kill the songbird."Op-Ed Contributor - What They Hate About Mumbai - NYTimes.com
"The winds of change are sweeping Washington even before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in Jan. 20, heralding new agenda priorities on a wide range of issues affecting technology, from climate change to health care reform to network neutrality.Henry Waxman, Green Energy and Technology Win First Fight of the New Congress
In the U.S. House, Democrats voted Nov. 20 to replace 82-year-old Rep. John Dingell—a powerful voice for Detroit automakers for more than 50 years—with outspoken energy and environmental advocate Rep. Henry Waxman of California as chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. In the Senate, Democrats are installing Sen. Jay Rockefeller, with health care reform and rural broadband access at the top of his agenda, as chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology."
"Waxman was elected chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and is expected to emphasize government accountability and pursue a "transparency agenda." A report soon to be issued on the FCC's decision-making process under current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is expected to highlight Waxman's penchant for accountability.While Waxman has a "spotty record" of attending high-tech oriented hearings, he supports network neutrality and is expected to work with the incoming administration to craft legislation in that area."Speculation on Waxman's telecom influence - FierceTelecom
"These ever-present screens have created an audience for very short moving pictures, as brief as three minutes, while cheap digital creation tools have empowered a new generation of filmmakers, who are rapidly filling up those screens. We are headed toward screen ubiquity."Idea Lab - Becoming Screen Literate - NYTimes.com
"This reality of the information age might be particularly stark for the president, but it's no less true for all of us. Conversation used to be ephemeral. Whether face-to-face or by phone, we could be reasonably sure that what we said disappeared as soon as we said it. Organized crime bosses worried about phone taps and room bugs, but that was the exception. Privacy was just assumed."Why Obama Should Keep His BlackBerry - WSJ.com
"The Broadband Forum and research partner Point-Topic announced that there are now more than 400 million global broadband subscribers. That's a long way from the first measurement taken in 1998, when global broadband subscribers numbered barely more than than 57,000. Fiber-based broadband services now account for about 45 million subscribers, according to Point-Topic."Broadband subs hit 400 million, 'Net bending under the weight - FierceTelecom
