The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. TECHNOLOGY
The Federal Communications Commission gives its unanimous final approval to the merger of AT&T and BellSouth.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: CEI staff on why the merger is a good deal for consumers:
“The nature of the technology sector, with its rapid and constant development, along with an environment where cable, telephone, and wireless companies all compete against each other, will help ensure competition in the telecommunications industry. [This merger is] a natural progression of a communications market working for consumers.”
2. ECONOMICS
The Urban Institute hosts a panel discussion on the implications of a raise in the federal minimum wage.
“Politicians love the minimum wage. It is a perfect issue on which to demagogue, since it promises benefits to the public while requiring no tax dollars to be spent, because the costs fall entirely on private businesses. And its costs on workers are hidden — there is no organized political pressure group of people who would have occupied jobs that an increased minimum wage kept from coming into being. But policies that create good political opportunities for populist grandstanding are often bad policy, and that’s true with the minimum wage. It is economic nonsense, premised on the idea that government can mandate a free lunch: It would be nicer for everyone to make more money, so there ought to be a law!”
3. WEATHER
Blizzard conditions in the Midwest and Colorado cause widespread damage to homes, farms and power lines.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on the advantages of mild winters:
“[C]old winter storms kill a lot of people. More people die from blizzards and cold spells than from heat waves. Increased death rates usually persist for weeks after the unusually cold temperatures have passed, which suggests that the cold is killing people who would otherwise live into another season at least. Mortality rates during heat waves are just the reverse. The increase ends and often the rate drops below normal as soon as temperatures cool, which suggests that the higher temperatures are killing people who are likely to die soon anyway. It is true that mortality rates from both cold and hot weather have been declining in rich countries for a long time. That’s because wealthier societies can adapt and protect themselves better from temperature extremes. But it also appears that deaths from hot weather have been declining more rapidly than those from cold.”