IRAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS: Today, PPI President Will Marshall wrote an op-ed for The Hill, “Holding Out Hope On Iran,” outlining the differences between the United States and Iran as we work to negotiate a nuclear deal and arguing that the Obama administration is right to give diplomacy another chance. “Given the magnitude of such differences, it’s easy to be pessimistic about nuclear diplomacy with Iran,” Marshall writes. “On balance, however, giving the talks a little more time is a gamble worth taking. This conclusion is not a vote of confidence in Iran, or even in Obama. Rather, it reflects the reality that all the other alternatives are worse.”
NET NEUTRALITY: Last week, PPI Senior Fellow Hal Singer joined, “The Great Net Neutrality Debate: Should the FCC Ban Paid Prioritization?” The event featured a debate on net neutrality with leading experts in tech policy, including Singer; Marvin Ammori, Fellow, New America Foundation; Jonathan Baker, Professor of Law, American University; and Berin Szoka, President, TechFreedom. Video of the event can be seen here.
See Also: “The Best Path Forward on Net Neturality,” by Singer and Brookings Non-Resident Senior Fellow Robert Litan.
REGULATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE: Last week, PPI Economist Diana Carew wrote an op-ed for The Hill, “Outdated cable box rule harms the data-driven economy.” “Innovating in the digital age requires flexible rules that keep pace with the latest technology,” Carew writes. “This is especially true in the video services market, where change has been fast and furious. That’s why Congress should act to repeal an expensive and innovation-restricting requirement on the design of set-top cable boxes — without limiting the choice of retail devices that consumers enjoy today.”
A study by PPI Chief Economic Strategist Michael Mandel and Carew was cited as evidence of current regulatory obstructions for entrepreneurs in a Huffington Post op-ed by U.S. Representatives Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Patrick E. Murphy (D-Fla.). “The Federal Code of Regulations numbers nearly 170,000 pages, and more pages are added to the code almost every single day,” writes Reps. Peters, Kind, and Murphy. “An analysis by the Progressive Policy Institute shows that the number of pages in the code more than doubled since 1975. We have a choice: We can either grow the mounds of paper that our entrepreneurs have to sift through to launch new ventures, or we can make the code simpler and easier to navigate, allowing our economy to grow and create new jobs.”
