Green
How do you change a regulatory framework when the facts on the ground shift?
Interesting comment out of Australia. Electricity distribution network providers are pushing for massive rate increases to fund potential excess investment in infrastructure. The underlying argument here is that the network providers may no longer have a monopoly, so monopoly regulation is outdated. Alternative green energy resources can provide some of the services offered by the traditional players in the space.
‘Momentum is growing towards reform of the economic regulation of electricity networks, with overseas jurisdictions introducing contestability and payments for DER to provide network services, totex regulation and performance incentives for decarbonisation.’
The case against social media regulation
Researchers are not opposed to tools that help users protect their privacy or curate their social media experience. They do warn against the unintended negative consequences of the proposed U.S. legislation.
‘In a new report, they warn that state and federal laws seeking to bar or curb the spread of certain content are driven by an unproven belief that social media is causing a youth mental health crisis.
‘Child online safety laws won’t solve mental illness and could harm marginalized kids by cutting them off from vital online communities and information, Alice Marwick, lead author of the report and associate professor at UNC Chapel Hill, told Ruth.`
Why some additional regulation would help crypto
Tyler Cowen says regulatory certainty is better than regulatory discretion, i.e., the crypto status quo.
‘As for the policy details: Is this a good bill? Mostly, yes. Without a coherent regulatory framework, the US crypto sector won’t be competitive with those of other nations. That damages the potential for American innovation, encourages some entrepreneurs to take their businesses abroad, and could eventually limit the integration of crypto with mainstream financial infrastructures, which would put the US financial sector at a disadvantage.’
Firms and inventors are insufficiently rewarded for the social value of their work. One way to encourage innovation is to stop taking as much from the compensation they do manage to obtain. Just saying.
‘Taxation and Innovation in the 20th Century is a 2018 paper by Ufuk Akcigit, John Grigsby, Tom Nicholas, and Stefanie Stantcheva that provides some answers. They collect and clean new datasets on patenting, corporate and individual incomes, and state-level tax rates that extend back to the early 20th century. The headline result: taxes are a huge drag on innovation. A one percent increase in the marginal tax rate for 90th percentile income earners decreases the number of patents and inventors by 2%. The corporate tax rate is even more important, with a one percent increase causing 2.8% fewer patents and 2.3% fewer inventors.’
Interesting history of how an early success in standing up to brutalist policy led to a vetocracy that makes dealing with housing problems impossible.
‘One of the many obstacles to prevent development is called Discretionary Review, which allows anybody to raise complaints and potentially deny a project, even if the proposed project meets all requirements laid out in the city’s zoning codes. (By contrast, in most places, if you want to build a building that already meets all codes, your plans will automatically be approved. This is what’s called “by-right development.”)’
New York Tests FCC’s “No Rate Regulation” Pledge
It’s never just one thing.
‘Reclassification opponents have long warned that net neutrality could be a Trojan horse for broadband rate regulation. Partly in response to this criticism, the Federal Communications Commission’s recent Title II reclassification order expressly reiterated its commitment to the agency’s long-standing, bipartisan commitment to keeping the Internet free from price controls. But even before the order had been finalized, New York’s Affordable Broadband Act began testing the strength of that commitment—and the agency’s initial response seems to be reinforcing its critics’ concerns.’