Rethinking technology policy for the next half century

[Commentary] The political upheaval in Washington offers a rare chance to fundamentally rethink the way we govern our economy’s leading edge technology industries. These industries contain both the nation’s largest infrastructure investors (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast) and also many of the world’s most valuable firms (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Oracle). To the extent government policy played a role in this success, it is partly the result of design but also part happy accident. The Internet grew up outside the regulatory reach of the 1934 Communications Act, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which contemplated the internet only briefly, directing a policy of regulatory restraint. The good judgement and good luck, however, may be running out.

[Bret Swanson is president of Entropy Economics LLC]