Bad News: AT&T / BellSouth Proposed Merger

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Via Dave Farber:

It will be interesting to see what happens when the FCC begins reviewing thereported and alleged merger of the AT&T/BellSouth deal. As it may be a much different Commission body with the hopes of Robert McDowell’s confirmation by the Senate.

Mr. McDowell is a telecom lawyer who currently serves as
assistant general counsel at Comptel and opponent of the AT&T and Verizon
mergers last year. Mr. McDowell is scheduled to appear before a Senate
committee on Thursday for his confirmation and is likely to be asked about
the merger.

I can’t imagine this will be, in any way positive for our lagging broadband services. Read “We thought you said spend the $200 billion on dark fiber” for more on this mess.

Gladwell: Lazy Centers

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Malcolm Gladwell:

David Sally, a behavioral economist at Dartmouth, responds to the discussion I had with Bill Simmons yesterday on the tendency of NBA players to so dramatically over-perform in the last year of their contract:

With regard to the contract year phenomenon, we can go a little further–we can predict that the likelihood of the post-contract dip is positively correlated with the height of the player. Why is that? Again, the answer lies in the environment-individual link. The seven foot guy has heard that he should be a basketball player since he was eight years old or even younger. He’s been pushed his whole career onto the grade school team, onto the varsity, into Division I, and then the NBA draft. He is much less likely than the six foot guy to ever have made a committed choice. He may never had to exert anything approaching his maximum effort level until his contract year. As a result, he has either no idea how to persevere or no intrinsic motivation. So, Simmons’ rule is actually too blunt: it seems he should be able to draft contract-signing point guards and two guards for his fantasy team, but never centers or fours. Small forwards–we’d have to do the empirical study.

A Magic Way to Make Billions

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Donald Barlett and James B. Steele:

The wording is so bland and buried so deep within a 324-page budget document that almost no one would notice that a multibillion-dollar scam is going on. Not the members of Congress voting for it and certainly not the taxpayers who will get fleeced by it. And that is exactly the idea.

With Washington reeling from the Abramoff lobbying scandal and Republicans and Democrats alike pledging to crack down on influence peddling, with one lawmaker already gone from Capitol Hill because he traded favors for cash, you’re probably guessing this isn’t the best time for members of Congress to dispense a fortune in favors to their friends.

Guess again.

Apathy, The Downside of Everything

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Ed Wallace:

No, instead I’m concerned about our country’s lack of vision for the future and the can-do attitude that we seem somehow to have lost — at least, it’s missing from most discussions on issues facing us today. In a nutshell, I’m lamenting the apparent mortal illness of optimism and ingenuity — the kind of spirit and drive that ignores all the negative issues in the news, the naysayers and the partisans and simply presses forward, driving toward solutions that benefit all of society.

I know we had that once, because the car industry as we know it today was not the invention of large and well-funded corporations. It was created and delivered by men who, though they often worked against the most incredible odds, never lost sight of their dreams and visions. With that focus — which often earned them scorn and insults — they changed the world for the better in a way that centuries of innovation hadn’t. And they did it in mere decades.

Philadelphia’s Municipal WiFi Plans

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Glenn Flieshman:

The finalization of the deal hinged on a separate contract for access to light poles: I’m not sure why this wasn’t reported earlier, but the first I heard about this utility pole arrangement being a gating factor is in this article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer. The agreements could be introduced to the city council for approval tomorrow. Details of the main contract for service have been only sketchily released. For instance, I found out a few weeks ago—and had confirmed by city CIO Dianah Neff—that a 15-square-mile pilot network has to be built by EarthLink and tested through early users and independent evaluation before the full network is built. This is a prudent step.

Peak Oil?

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Robert Hirsch:

Peak oil is real, but there are strategies available to mitigate its effect, IF we start in time. Dr. Hirsch is the Senior Energy Program Advisor for SAIC and past chairman of the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems at the National Academies.

Do Americans Support a Gas Tax?

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Barry Ritholtz:

“A significant number would go along with an increase if it reduced global warming or made the United States less dependent on foreign oil, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The nationwide telephone poll, conducted Wednesday through Sunday, suggested that a gasoline tax increase that brought measurable results would be acceptable to a majority of Americans.

Neither the Bush administration nor Democratic Party leaders make that distinction. Both are opposed to increasing the gasoline tax as a means of discouraging consumption, although President Bush, in recent speeches, has called for the development of alternative energy to reduce dependence on foreign oil.”