New America Policy Papers

The ongoing debate over the environmental impacts of private foreign direct investment (FDI) has focused primarily on the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in implementing diverse standards in countries at varying levels of social, economic and political development. Since the international debt crisis of the late 1980s foreign investment flows have become increasingly important, financing current account deficits as well as sustaining economic development. The flow of FDI to developing countries and emerging markets now exceeds official development assistance (ODA)… more

For nearly a century, radio frequency spectrum has been treated as a scarce resource that the government must parcel out through exclusive licenses. Licensing may have been the only approach in the 1920s, but it certainly isn't in the first years of the 21st century. Today's digital technologies are smart enough to distinguish between signals, allowing users to share the airwaves without exclusive licensing.

Instead of treating spectrum as a scarce physical resource, we could make… more

The nation’s airwaves are the most precious natural resource of the Information Age, highly sought after by a range of commercial firms—from broadcasters to cell phone companies and taxis—that use them as an input to production. The airwaves, more technically called the radio spectrum, are also a publicly owned asset like the navigable waterways, the atmosphere and the mineral wealth under federal land. As with these other public resources, policymakers need to find a way to ensure that citizens receive… more

This week's positive reports showing rising consumer confidence and manufacturing activity have raised hopes that a solid economic recovery is now taking hold. But Washington should not expect its tax coffers to overflow anytime soon or for the economy to return to 1990s-level growth rates. In the short term, the economy still faces an uphill struggle to overcome the excesses of the 1990s -- too much consumption, too much debt, and wildly inflated asset prices -- that are… more

In the months leading up to the votes on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), President Bush had to buy off powerful domestic constituencies with tariffs on steel and, more recently, increased subsidies for agriculture. Now that he has TPA, the President has wisely reversed course and proposed a far-reaching plan to use the Doha round of trade talks to eliminate the majority of world-government support for agricultural products by 2010. The agricultural proposal, in conjunction with TPA, will hopefully enable the… more

NAF, et al. observe that wide support exists for all the points raised in the initial comments, although not from all commentors. Indeed, many commentors agree with NAF, et al. on one substantive point (e.g., increasing the availability of unlicensed spectrum) but not on others (e.g., allowing greater flexibility).

To address the overall thrust of these comments, NAF, et al. offer the task force basic principles for balancing the competing goals of the Communications Act: enhancing competition, innovation, diversity of… more

Beginning in the 1950s, local TV broadcasters have argued that because they provide a "free" (i.e., ad-supported) product to the American people, the government should treat them more favorably than other commercial businesses that charge consumers for their products. In the name of preserving free TV, the government has transferred from the public to broadcasters control over assets (spectrum) worth at least $100 billion in the last decade alone -- despite the fact that fewer than 15% of U.S.… more

In our democracy, speech is free but communication is expensive -- and never more so than during the campaign season. As the cost of political communication keeps rising, the competitive playing field of campaigns keeps tilting toward candidates who are wealthy or well-financed. The most effective way to make campaigns more competitive is to ensure that the less well-financed candidate at least has the seed resources to get a message out by creating a system of free air… more

Even amidst the burst of the "dot com" bubble, many believe that new information technologies are having a dramatic impact on the way we live, work, learn, and communicate with each other. One of the applications of information technology that has attracted the most attention is "e-learning." Technology has the potential to transform education and lifelong learning. In the future, learners of all ages will be able to tap in to vast digital libraries and online museums,… more

At the dawn of the 21st century in the United States, our culture and economy are so steeped in an unqualified belief in the power of entrepreneurial innovation that, ironically, we tend to disregard the enormous investment previous generations have made toward the nation’s shared research infrastructure. We like to think that the inventions upon which we increasingly rely have sprung up like weeds. But the truth is that these inventions owe more than we often acknowledge to cultivation and… more

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Sweeping changes in our nation’s communications infrastructure and markets over the past twenty years have radically changed the topography of the public sphere and democratic culture. But the mental maps which many people use to conceive “the public interest” in communications hark back to circa 1975, a time when the traditional broadcast model dominated and there were only three commercial television networks, cable TV consisted of “community antennae” to reach rural areas and even the VCR had not yet been… more

In the emerging information economy, there is no more valuable public asset than the airwaves, or electromagnetic spectrum. Unfortunately, the prevailing regulatory model for allocating spectrum is grossly inefficient and inequitable to both the business sector and the public who own this valuable resource. Commercial broadcasters are the biggest beneficiaries of this policy failure. Broadcasters originally were granted free spectrum on the condition that they act as "public trustees" of the airwaves and deliver quality educational, civic,… more

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Some of the most promising ways to bring about rural poverty alleviation and conservation around the world involve innovative ways to increase the control that the rural poor can exercise over their natural resource base and to pay them for their sustainable stewardship of environmental functions and services. These approaches can make use of market instruments… more

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Last December Sen. John McCain described the 1996 “loan” of a second TV channel to broadcasters – for the stated purpose of facilitating the transition to digital and high-definition television – as “one of the great rip offs in American history. They used to rob trains in the Old West, now we rob spectrum.”

But even critics of the first Congressional giveaway could not have anticipated that within five years the FCC would allow broadcasters operating on channels 60 to… more

If Stevenson was correct in his reinterpretation of Goethe—“That which you inherit from your fathers/You must earn in order to possess”—then the efflorescence of digital technologies over the past twenty years is posing some unprecedented challenges to our democratic polity. The computer, the Internet and any other digital technologies are dramatically changing the character oforganizations, markets, the nation-state and the global economy. What is less clear is how the traditional rights and liberties of American citizens shall be re-interpreted inthe… more

Today the American people collectively own the most valuable resource in the emerging information economy: the airwaves, also known as the electromagnetic spectrum. Auctions conducted last year in Europe and early this year in the U.S. suggest that spectrum occupied by commercial licensees has a market value well in excess of $300 billion. Unfortunately, while high bids by wireless phone companies should be a boon to the ordinary citizens who own the airwaves, high prices also evidence a policy-induced spectrum… more