this seems to me a really important example to invoke endlessly. sometimes, "conventional wisdom" about how "the market" is going to react to "regulation" is spectacularly wrong. One fine day, "the market' opens its eyes and says, "oh, wow! we can still make huge wads of cash! Buy! Buy!"
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/why-everyone-was-wrong-about-net-neutrality [...] Yet the moment that Tom Wheeler announced his plans for strong net-neutrality rules, on February 4th, broadband stocks jumped, and they have stayed buoyant. This has confused experts. Craig Moffett, whom I consider to be the smartest telecom analyst around, was forced to blame the market. “I think it just shows you that the market doesn’t really understand these issues,” he said. The theory of the wisdom of crowds suggests that the markets have noticed something: the broadband industry hates net neutrality, but its existence has always had a huge and unnoticed upside. Selling broadband is a great business: Moffet has pointed out that the margins are north of ninety-seven per cent. Stated simply, a strong net-neutrality rule locks in the status quo for the most profitable part of the cable industry’s business. [...] === Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] (202) 448-2898 x1
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