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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kech who wrote (2444)	8/27/2000 11:49:21 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 196559

I haven't seen stuff specifically dealing with the regulatory process and handling of spectrum. Twenty-five years ago, however, I used similar issues faced by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a paper published by the University of Michigan, entitled "The Dynamics of the Regulatory Process." Essentially I argue that if the regulatory agency has a viable research capability in the field subject to regulation, it is possible to devise policies and rules such that the long term benefits of regulation outweigh the shorter term focus of participants in a free market system. The key to success is maintaining a research and planning component with sufficient expertise to make intelligent judgments. The problem is that because of the reliance on political appointments in the upper eschelons of regulatory agencies, decisions based on expertise rarely occur, or when they do occur, rarely address the most essential issues. An additional problem occurs with the so-called "revolving door," where former employees of regulatory agencies are hired by the companies being regulated, at very comfortable rates of compensation. This creates an incentive for regulatory officials to play up to the regulated industries in order to capture some of these nice jobs later on. Art Bechhoefer