Today’s Links: May 16, 2012

OPINION

FARHAD MANJOO: “What Does Facebook’s $100 Billion IPO Mean for You?”
“When Facebook filed for its initial public offering in February, Mark Zuckerberg wrote a frank letter to potential investors in the firm. ‘Facebook was not originally created to be a company,’ he began. ‘It was built to accomplish a social mission—to make the world more open and connected.’ The founder went on to say that while making money was important to Facebook, raking in cash was not its primary goal. ‘Simply put: we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.'”

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI and SEN. DAVID VITTER: “Obama’s Mulligan on Keystone XL”
“TransCanada’s decision to reapply for a federal permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline across the U.S.-Canadian border offers President Obama something that rarely comes around – a second chance to do the right thing. When the president rejected TransCanada’s original Keystone XL application – finding a project capable of delivering roughly 1 million barrels of oil a day to American refineries not in the national interest – he threw away a golden opportunity to create jobs and improve America’s energy security.”

TIM CARNEY: “Look Who Favors Corporate Jet Subsidies Now”
“Remember when Obama was railing on about “the tax-break for corporate jets,” during the debt-ceiling fights of 2011? He repeatedly invoked this “tax break,” which was really about how some corporate jets were depreciated over five years instead of seven. The message was clear: Republicans are in bed with corporate-jet owners. His loyal legions on the Left joined the chant. But today, Obama’s export-subsidy chief promised a billion dollars in taxpayer-backed subsidies for corporate jets, according to Bloomberg News.”

NEWS

FINANCE – F.B.I. Inquiry Adds to JPMorgan’s Woes
“Investors and federal investigators turned up the heat on JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday, as shareholders called for pay givebacks from executives responsible for a stunning $2 billion trading loss and the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary review of the debacle.”

ENVIRONMENT – WWF Says Overconsumption Threatens Planet
“In its latest survey of the Earth’s health, WWF named Qatar as the country with the largest , followed by its Middle Eastern neighbours Kuwait and the . Denmark and the United States made up the remaining top five, calculated by comparing the  consumed against the earth’s.”

SPECTRUM – FCC to Verizon: What’s Wrong With That Spectrum You Never Built Out?
“The Federal Communications Commission wants Verizon Wireless to explain why it never deployed cellular services in spectrum that it acquired four years ago and is now trying to sell off in order to get a better chunk of spectrum for its 4G-LTE network.”