Articles by Bruce Fein
Broadband Misinformation
Internet broadband is flourishing under regulations issued by the Bush administration pursuant to the pro-competition Telecommunications Act of 1996. Average monthly rates have plunged from approximately $80 to $40 or less. Residential and small business subscribe
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Telecom Investment Bonanza
The Federal Communications Commission should not quarrel with success. Telecommunications investments -- a sparkplug of economic growth and prosperity -- have boomed since the inauguration of competition for local exchange service under the umbrella of the 1996 Te
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Competition's Foes Continue
Time is out of joint. The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael K. Powell, is seeking a second time to kill budding local phone competition after an initial defeat last February 20 by jumping their operating costs to...
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Conflict of Loyalties
Independent agencies inhabit an odd constitutional universe. They are independent of both the President and Congress, yet are executive branch creatures that exercise both quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers. Agency chairmen characteristically command agen
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Dictating Double Standards
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, w. J. "Billy" Tauzin's federalism arabesque pointing towards States' rights on energy and towards a uniform national policy on local phone service is reminiscent of philosopher Sam Johnson's dog walking on its hinder le
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Larcenies Petty and Grand
Erratic law hikes risks and dampens business activity. Punitive damages are emblematic. Juries intermittently return astronomical awards pursuant to open-ended standards that invite caprice and whimsy. Such freakish law makes liability insurance for punitive verdi
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A Tangled Web
The Baby Bell monopolists appear engulfed in antitrust hot water. They misled the Federal Communications Commission over their new fiber investment plans in the event regulatory unbundling obligations were withheld. They got what they wished for, but then reneged o
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Pull a Fast One
Human nature covets scapegoats. Fast food is emblematic. Gluttony is blamed on the succulence of the menu, not on our habits and self-control. Fast food chains and their suppliers are denounced for displacing traditional "Mom and Pop" businesses and...
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Uncertain Utility
Chairman Michael K. Powell sharply dissented from the portion of the Federal Communications Commission's Order of February 20, 2003, which retained obligations of incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) monopolists to unbundle network elements to facilitate budding
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Un-Founding Fathers (and Parents)
The Founding Fathers would be mortified and ashamed by the latest litigation frolic against McDonald's. They brought forth a new nation conceived in self-discipline, heroism, and a conviction that we are masters of our fate, captains of our soul....
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