CEI Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. TECHNOLOGY

Cities across the country cancel plans to create free municipal wireless networks.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on why cities should stay our of the wi-fi business:

“As municipal Wi-Fi companies become entrenched, we can expect them to not only demand that cities be anchor tenants, but that they help make up for the shortfalls that will inevitably result when new technologies supplant Wi-Fi. Worse, seeking to put off that day of reckoning, they may well ask for regulations stacking the deck in their favor, slowing the spread of the latest and greatest tech.”

2. HEALTH

Congress prepares for final passage of a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration expansive new regulatory powers.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on a poll of oncologists that found 77% believed that the FDA was too slow in approving new drugs:

“FDA reform is frequently attacked as a pet project of big business that will allegedly open the door to snake oil remedies. This characterization is wrong. As these polls demonstrate, for many medical specialists, fighting heart disease and cancer can often mean fighting FDA. If this isn't a public health problem in need of reform, what is?”

3. AGRICULTURE

Three years after the end of subsidies, tobacco growers continue to expand acreage.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith on how previously subsidized farmers can thrive in the free market:

“Surprise, surprise. Farmers can do better without federal government subsidies, price supports, quota systems, and other Depression-era programs that constrain competition and expansion. [This week] the Wall Street Journal focused a front-page article on the success of today’s tobacco farmers, who were ‘bought out’ from those programs three years ago. Now some tobacco farmers are finding that they can make more money when they’re allowed to compete in the market.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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