Regulation

Those who believe in free markets believe that companies should be free to merge as they see fit, and that the only role for antitrust should be to address clear evidence of consumer harm, writes Tom Giovanetti in RealClearTechnology. 

The Comcast\Time Warner Cable merger won’t harm consumers, but it will provide regulators with an opportunity to make policy under duress rather than through the normal rulemaking or legislative processes. 

With the FTC and the Justice Department in place and well-funded, it is needlessly duplicative for the FCC to engage in network neutrality rules and enforcement.

Comments by Rep. Thoreson and Bartlett Cleland submitted to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology concerning an update to the federal Communications Act.  The comments are taken from ALEC’s Six Principles for Communications and Technology, adopted by the Task Force and Board in 2013.

President Obama wants Congress to give the country a raise, which is bad economics, bad policy and bad federalism. If there is going to be a minimum wage increase, then states and cities ought to set it.

Although economists believe that raising the minimum wage hurts young and low-skilled workers by pricing them out of a job, the move has public support. 

FCC Chairman Wheeler says the FCC will take action only “if something appears to go wrong in a material, not a trivial, way. . . .“ That would be a good policy for all regulators, not just for the FCC.

To the editor: IPI Resident Scholar Dr. Merrill Matthews is right on with his criticism of Greenpeace’s ridiculous Santa Claus video.

Greenpeace releases a video of Santa lying to all the boys and girls about global warming.

IPI's Matthews noted Obamacare's expected 24 percent cut in Medicaid reimbursements coming Jan. 1. That issue has reared its head repeatedly, and each time Congress has stepped in to fix it by spending more money, but that can’t continue forever, he said.