Press

Recent blog posts by Americans for Tax Reform and Free Press inaccurately portray policy recommendations in the recently released PPI Policy Memo, “The Coming Communications Boom? Jobs, Innovation and Countercyclical Regulatory Policy.”

Written by Michael Mandel, the memo examines recent employment data that suggests the communications and Internet sectors may be emerging as “job leaders” as the overall economy struggles to recover. It also proposes that regulatory policy, like fiscal or monetary policy, should be sensitive to business cycles.

The memo calls for a “countercyclical regulatory policy,” focusing on the timing, rather than the merits of regulation. It recommends the Federal Communications Commission pause for a two-year period before imposing regulations on the growing communications sector in order to not impair job creation. The memo states: “After that period, the agency should systematically and proactively track down areas of excess and exploitive behavior and target them for selected intense regulation.”

The Progressive Policy Institute’s aim is to modernize regulatory policy for the 21st century by making it more flexible, more responsive to “boom and bust” cycles, and more attentive to growth and innovation.