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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: axial who wrote (31380)	9/17/2009 3:58:14 AM
From: Crossy	Respond to of 46821

TRIG, an interesting point you raise, indeed ! "It's not just the astroturfing, the litigation, the lobbying, the regulatorium, the legislators, the advertising etc., as activities in themselves. The practitioners are in fact economically dependent, to different degrees, on the incumbents. They too have a vested interest in perpetuating status quo." Capture and "reverse capture" at work simultaneously ? Another argument appears to support your view that the regulatory system and the "intrenched incumbent" engaging in a co-dependant relationship: All around the world, with the exception of the U.S., governments often still had (minority) stakes left in their former incumbents - ergo the incumbents' well being certainly was in the interest of the government. Okay, after the WTO rounds of the 1990ies, the regulatory institutions had to be separated from the former PTT/ILEC but these government minority positions have remained a fact of life for a long time rgrds CROSSY

To: axial who wrote (31380)	9/17/2009 9:46:12 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 46821

Jim, While my comment referring to a 'little push' was admittedly a bit glib, I stated it fully cognizant of the incumbents' own wavering confidence in the future of their wireline "properties" in the presence of their own wireless successes and the threats from encroaching over-the-top interlopers. Hence, my point may not necessarily have been as glib as I'm here and now confessing it was. You tell me. We've all seen first-hand how entrenchment can easily lose its footing. Think: Divestiture One. Think: Saigon. Think: Lehman Brothers. Perhaps Merrill and AIG, against the backdrop of the Lehman debacle, may be a better analogy here, since those combined outcomes more accurately exemplify how street sentiment combined with government fiat can conspire to carry a seemingly inordinate amount of weight in deciding the fate of an entity that earlier had been seen as among the most entrenched entities of all. Different circumstances (for now), granted, but I think it's apt, even if only as food for thought, just the same. FAC ------