Regulatin’

Regulation: is there a more terrible word in the English language?

Michael Mandel:

[A]t a time when President Obama is calling  for more innovation,   the wireless industry has produced more genuine new products and services than anyone else. So given the great performance of the industry during this tough period, why the heck does the Federal Communications Commission keep imposing additional regulations on wireless providers?

He presents an incredibly convincing picture for how well the unregulated telecoms industry is doing, from a consumer perspective.

I know. You’re skeptical. So read the whole thing.

But accepting that for a moment, why would a government unleash a regulator upon a quick-moving industry? These are the same hapless dummies that have so often, empowered by righteous legal authority, slammed the barn door shut with the horses long gone.

Who punished IBM and Microsoft’s hubris? Not regulators.

Who pays for the bloated compliance departments of heavily regulated industries? No villains here.

Who benefits if the cream of spectrum, currently dominated by an oligopoly of broadcasters, was auctioned off instead of regulated to death? Not incumbents and the congress they co-opt.

You can’t legislate better service.