December 2016

[Commentary] During the campaign, Donald Trump railed against powerful corporations and promised to prevent blockbuster mergers like the proposed $85.4 billion deal between AT&T and Time Warner. That was then. Since the election, President-elect Trump has been decidedly less interested in constraining the power of big companies, especially those in the telecommunications industry.

Investors and financial analysts are already betting that the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission under Trump will be more likely to approve mergers in this industry, including perhaps a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. Trump appears ready to do away with regulations on this oligopolistic industry. As it is, a lack of competition for some services is driving up prices. Public interest groups, Democratic lawmakers and sensible Republicans in Congress ought to vigorously oppose Trump’s deregulatory agenda. This won’t be easy, but they could, for example, try to challenge policy changes by filing lawsuits against the FCC, a tactic the telecom industry has used countless times over the years to stymie or delay regulations they opposed.

When Senate Democrats pick a new FCC commissioner, they ought to pick a strong consumer advocate who will use the position to speak out forcefully for more competition in the industry and common-sense approaches like net neutrality rules. Susan Crawford, of Harvard Law School, and Tim Wu, of Columbia Law School, are two experts who specialize in telecommunication issues and fit that bill.

Silicon Valley practically invented the reality distortion field, so it should not have been surprised that president-elect Donald Trump told technology executives on Wednesday to “like me — at least a little bit” because of “the bounce”. But the only chief executive at Trump Tower to have experienced much of a bounce was Ginni Rometty of IBM.

It is time to cheer up. Taken at its worst, the nationalist, anti-free trade, anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric of Mr Trump would be bad news for the US tech sector, which relies on a steady supply of overseas engineers and the tolerance of foreign policymakers. But look at the financial sector. It would be hit by the same policies if they were enacted. Yet bank investors’ glasses are half-full: they are assuming much of the rhetoric is bluster and greedily anticipating action on deregulation. As Peter Thiel says, people should take Trump “seriously but not literally”. Much of the world cannot afford to be so blasé, but the tech sector can. It should be looking forward to an even more compelling handout, should Trump make good on his promise of a tax holiday on repatriating foreign profits.

[Commentary] For three years Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler rammed through his agenda on partisan lines, including classifying the internet as a public utility. He took orders from the White House, Google and the nonprofit Public Knowledge, to the extent there’s any difference among the three. Wheeler refused to pass around draft rules and sandbagged his colleagues with surprise votes and deals, the details of which were often altered later. Republicans are eager to roll out a reform agenda, and with Chairman Wheeler gone they’ll have a chance to do it, no Senate parliamentary tricks required. As for Tom Wheeler, he’s about to see that his legacy can be reversed in months because it was rooted in partisan self-interest rather than the national interest.