{"id":1634,"date":"2009-10-27T12:57:56","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T16:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2009-10-28T18:05:09","modified_gmt":"2009-10-28T22:05:09","slug":"net-neutrality-the-next-systemic-risk-for-the-u-s-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/1634\/net-neutrality-the-next-systemic-risk-for-the-u-s-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Net Neutrality, the Next “Systemic Risk” for the U.S. Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Pethokoukis, Money and Politics columnist and blogger for Reuters, notes<\/a> that the FCC\u2019s decision to proceed with a process of imposing so-called Net Neutrality rules<\/a> on Internet network providers is not only \u201ccurious as well as wrongheaded,\u201d it could result in the next \u201csystemic risk\u201d for the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n

Questioning the wisdom and necessity of strict Internet regulations to be imposed under the false promise of \u201cneutrality,\u201d Pethokoukis wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The financial crisis that has convulsed the global economy for the past two years should be a potent reminder to communications regulators that the best of government intentions can create horrible, though unintended, consequences. \u2026<\/p>\n

“Like physicians and Fed governors, the first goal of regulators should be to do no harm. And that is especially true when they are trying to impose a solution in search of a problem. Broadband prices, for one thing, are on the decline. The average cost of consumer broadband has dropped\u00a0to less than $20 a month from $50 a month in 2001. And more people have access. As late of 2004, 70 percent of households still used dial-up modems for web access. Today, just 10 percent do with broadband speeds doubling over that period. Tough to find a market failure here. \u2026<\/p>\n

“But the FCC \u2014 with the full encouragement of the Obama administration \u2014 nonetheless intends to push forward with seeming little concern about the unintended consequences of intervening into a well-functioning sector vital to the American economy. At the very least, the FCC will likely face years of court battles over the rule that could serve to paralyze the sector. Now there\u2019s your systemic risk.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Google\u00a0Chief Executive\u00a0Eric Schmidt, whose company has been lobbying hard in support of Net Neutrality, admitted recently<\/a>, \u201cIt is possible for the government to screw the Internet up, big-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0Google and other large corporate content providers who wish to use the heavy hand of government to continue to freeload on the backs of ordinary Internet consumers should heed Schmidt\u2019s warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Pethokoukis, Money and Politics columnist and blogger for Reuters, notes that the FCC\u2019s decision to proceed with a process of imposing so-called Net Neutrality rules on Internet network providers is not only \u201ccurious as well as wrongheaded,\u201d it could result in the next \u201csystemic risk\u201d for the U.S. economy. Questioning the wisdom and necessity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[383,362,382,148],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-eric-schmidt","tag-google","tag-james-pethokoukis","tag-net-neutrality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}