Some argue that the broadband market already has been carved up into a cartel, so blocking the acquisition would do little to bring down prices. Washington should examine a larger question beyond whether the deal is good or bad for consumers: Is it good for our democracy? We haven’t needed to ask this question for more than a century because America hasn’t experienced the present concentration of economic wealth and power in more than a century.
There’s a significant labor economics literature that argues that job-to-job transitions are a major driver of wage growth for workers. If the number of people moving directly from one job to another is in decline, that’s a bad sign for wage growth, as well as inflation and monetary policy. This appears to be undertheorized and not discussed enough in academic or policy discussions.
For New Orleans, the debate over charter schools and teachers unions has always been an either-or proposition. The Orleans Parish School Board voided the city’s union contract after Hurricane Katrina, and charter schools began taking over rapidly thereafter. Now, New Orleans is beginning to find out if this hard divide between charters and unions is really necessary, or if the two can somehow learn to coexist.
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