Satellite Radio, Gas Prices and the Credit Crunch

1. TECHNOLOGY

Sirius and XM Satellite await final government approval of their merger.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on how regulators should approach the deal:

 

“Regulators should refrain from using the merger review process to extract a parade of concessions from these struggling companies. Meanwhile, antitrust policy should allow aggressive competitive responses to the combination. Wall Street, investors, programmers, consumers, already-poised rivals, and new entrants collectively will discipline more thoroughly than could the Federal Communications Commission. That’s as it should be.”

 

 

2. CONSUMER

Average gas prices rise to a new record high, prompting accusations of price gouging.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on why there’s really no such thing as gouging:

 

“Price gouging is generally defined as a vendor using unusual market conditions to exploit demand and extort unreasonably higher payments from his customers. Yet, outside the black market, price gouging is unlikely to exist in practice.”

 

 

3. BUSINESS

Alan Greenspan tells an audience that the worst of the U.S. credit crisis is over.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer and Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on what financial markets need:

 

“America needs a fundamental rethinking of its system of financial regulation that asks questions about what activities properly fall under governmental regulation, which ones might be dealt with through semi-private means, and which ones belong entirely in the hands of the free market.”

 

 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, http://www.openmarket.org/”>Open Market.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].