Online Ads, Regulatory Reform and Free Trade
Google and Yahoo abandon a proposed advertising partnership amid antitrust concerns.
President-Elect Obama begins transition work with the current White House staff.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel is named the next White House chief of staff.
More headlines: listen to the LibertyWeek podcast.
1. TECHNOLOGY
Google and Yahoo abandon a proposed advertising partnership amid antitrust concerns.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on what this means for both companies:
“Yahoo! knows it’s not going to be a leader in search anytime soon, but it’s a leader in many content areas. Its Yahoo! Mail service alone has over a quarter of a billion users, dwarfing Google Gmail. Transitioning to a content-focused company is probably the best move for Yahoo!, a move that will be much harder without the ability to monetize its more esoteric content as well as search queries. Once again, in trying to maintain some conception of what competition has been, antitrust regulators have prevented the competition of the future from forming as quickly as might have.”
2. POLITICS
President-Elect Obama begins transition work with the current White House staff.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews gives a recommendation to the new administration:
“If motivated by genuine public interest rather than misplaced loathing of commerce, reformers in this new administration should urge that unelected regulators’ decrees not take effect until our elected Congress expeditiously approves them. Grappling with ‘regulation without representation’ is one of today’s most critical public policy challenges.”
3. TRADE
Rep. Rahm Emanuel is named the next White House chief of staff.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on Emanuel’s track record on free trade:
“While Emanuel has introduced legislation and has taken strong positions in support of social programs – government-run health insurance, educational subsidies – as well as subsidies for alternative energy sources, he also has been a strong supporter of more open trade and helped guide NAFTA through Congress during the Clinton years. Emanuel can be quite eloquent when he talks about trade and globalization – together with his view of the need to buttress taxpayer-financed social programs so the middle-class isn’t disaffected.”
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