Regulation

Reihan Salam is an associate editor at The Atlantic, and was previously a producer for NBC News, a junior editor and editorial researcher at The New York Times, a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. He is the co-author of Grand… more

"Free My Phone" was the impassioned headline of Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, who took both the wireless carriers and the FCC to task for not giving consumers the choice to use the devices and applications of their choice. Currently, wireless carriers can restrict the phones and other devices consumers can use on their network, what device features they can access, and what software applications and content they can download. This "locking and blocking"… more

It's more than a little difficult to imagine Angelo Mozilo, the embattled chief executive of mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial, being a Drucker disciple. But just last year he didn't hesitate to paint himself that way and, in at least one sense, he was right.

"As the late Peter Drucker once said, the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity," Mozilo told an audience of bond holders, bankers, and others. "This is the essence… more

Over the next few weeks, as the healthcare debate heats up in Sacramento and passions start to boil over, expect to hear one four-letter word uttered an awful lot: cost.

Actually, make that cost containment.

The Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights is bent on bringing loads of attention to the issue. And this is not a group that anybody should take lightly -- particularly when it has a compelling case to make.

The foundation’s founder, Harvey Rosenfield, was the author… more

With Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror dominating headlines in Washington these days, there's a real danger that U.S. policymakers will lose sight of the other major war currently being fought around the world -- the war for capital. While other countries are fighting with all they've got, many in the U.S. remain complacent, indifferent or antagonistic. Big mistake. There's a clear relationship between global financial leadership and global influence, and if history is any guide, Americans can't assume… more

Now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has come out with unequivocal evidence of human-caused global warming, all eyes are on Capitol Hill to finally come up with a plan to deal with greenhouse gases and US energy security. More than a decade of wrangling over the details of greenhouse cap and trade, raising CAFE standards, and imposing gasoline taxes has lead to a deadlock that has cost Americans time, opportunities, and (as prices have risen over the last… more

President Bush's Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, has endorsed the principle underlying a national education standards incentive plan developed with the support of the New… more

You might think that holiday shoppers driving on the nation’s highways would have enough to worry about with bad weather and high gas prices. But unless there is a sudden about-face on the part of the Federal Highway Administration, Americans are about to receive an unwelcome gift that, unlike a wrong-color necktie or bad-fitting socks, could literally kill them.

The FHA, which oversees our nation’s highway system, is about to issue a regulation allowing 97-foot-long multi-truck monstrosities to roar up… more

Only 9% of American adults think the pharmaceutical industry is trustworthy, according to a recent Harris poll. That means that the makers of lifesaving and life-enhancing drugs rank just above tobacco companies in the public's esteem.

How could this happen? Easily. Despite efforts to reform the Food and Drug Administration after its scandalous failures to police drug-safety standards in the cases of Vioxx and other dangerous drugs, the FDA still does not have clear safety policies and can be… more

Sacramento rests on the edge of what could prove a difficult decade, which could either make or break its momentum toward becoming one of the regional winners in the new century.

For much of the late '90s and in the early 2000s, Sacramento seemed to be finding itself and spreading its wings. Boosted by an ever-expanding government sector, the region also was becoming an important "spillover" region for the Silicon Valley and for educated professionals fleeing the congested, overpriced Bay Area… more