ABSTRACT: It was a volatile yet rangebound week for the markets, with U. S. shares, precious metal prices, and oil prices all seeing choppy activity. European and Asian stock markets rose to fresh highs, the former amid an improving outlook for Greece and the eurozone.
GOVERNMENT & POLICY Net Neutrality Gets a Whole Lot Murkier
There are few current policy issues that seem to be less understood, and more shrouded in ambiguity, than the ‘Network Neutrality’ debate. That being the case, the discourse surrounding net neutrality has essentially been split down ideological lines.
For starters, the FCC vote this week on the supposed net neutrality measure, endorsed by the president and others in his cohort, was divided by party affiliation, yielding a narrow 3-2 partisan decision in favor of expanding internet regulation.
On the left, proponents of the newly-passed measures are crying foul about the absence of any rules preventing internet services providers (ISPs) from charging exorbitantly high fees for different content providers to use a ‘fast lane’ of dissemination. The lack of regulations opens a can of worms, as ISPs (predominantly Comcast and Verizon) can theoretically shakedown companies that provide content by slowing down their data transmission speeds, and extorting them for faster speeds.
Although the evidence that such a scheme is – or will eventually be – taking place is inconclusive, the point is taken.
This post was published at Deviant Investor on February 28, 2015.
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