By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Nobel-Winning Message for the FCC (Bloomberg View)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford asks whether Jean Tirole's new Nobel Prize in Economics might convince the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider his work on regulating communications utilities. By ignoring his work, she says the FCC has brought on the highly concentrated monopolies of the U.S.'s current telecommunications infrastructure.
More than a decade ago, federal policy makers turned their backs on Tirole's sensible assessments of private communications utilities -- and with disastrous results.
Tirole's insight was that any company controlling physical lines into homes and businesses, left to its own devices, would act as a natural monopoly, extracting tribute from every other business and customer that depends on communications capacity. To constrain that power, regulators might need to separate wholesale and retail communications-access services, and require interconnection with other networks.
Follow below the fold for more.
Retail Group's Report Aims to Counter Wage 'Misperceptions' (Chicago Tribune)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Annette Bernhardt tells Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz that the National Retail Federation's report is "an astonishing exercise in tautology" that ignores the industry's bad jobs.
Nurses Union: ‘We’ve Been Lied To’ About Ebola Preparedness (MSNBC)
National Nurses United is accusing the Centers for Disease Control of insufficiently training nurses for the front-line work needed to fight this potential epidemic, reports Ned Resnikoff.
Wall Street Might Know Something the Rest of Us Don’t (NYT)
Neil Irwin suggests that current drops in the stock market need not be seen as a sign of another crisis brewing: more likely, the market is falling back in line with the rest of the economy.
When the Workday Never Really Ends (The Nation)
Michelle Chen looks at new research on how so-called flexible scheduling disrupts the lives of low-income workers with "normal unpredictability" in already-precarious industries.
What’s the Punishment for Ripping Off Consumers? (Medium)
The typical regulatory response to large financial institutions lying to customers is a fine, and Felix Salmon says these fines aren't high enough to be an actual punishment or force change.
Gar Alperovitz on Why the New Economy Movement Needs to Think Big (Yes Magazine)
Scott Gast reviews Alperovitz's new book, What Then Must We Do?, in which he lays out the possibility of a new economic system built up from worker cooperatives.
New on Next New Deal
Threat of Ebola Highlights Problems in the U.S. Public Health System
Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network Senior Fellow for Health Care Emily Cerciello says the two cases of Ebola transmitted in the U.S. prove the need for improved public health infrastructure and guidelines.