How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

"With ail thy getting get underst<strong>and</strong>ing"
Fact <strong>and</strong> Comment
By Malcolm S . Forbes Jr., Editor-in-Chief
CoNcltHS SHOULD DO to the Federal Communications
Commission what it did to the Ci% il Aeronautics
Board 17 years ago : Abolish ic
The FCC has outli~ed its usefulness
. The davs when airwaves were
thought of as a scarce resource
that had to be allocated <strong>and</strong> regu-d lated bv a federal authoriw <strong>and</strong>
vahen telephones were thougitt of
as a "natural" monopoly are long
gone . In fact, this agency has become
an obstacle to our gaining
the full fruits of the exciting
changes sweeping the communications
field . The FCC delaved
competition in long distance telephony
by a decade <strong>and</strong> did the same with cellular phone
semce. It hobbled the deveiopment ofcable tele~ision .
Breakneck technology has obliterated natural monopolies
<strong>and</strong> is increasing airwave capacin-the so-called
THE STATE OF THE STOCK 14SARKET
SEND IT TO THE S:ViITHSONLIN
is now in the h<strong>and</strong>s of Washington . If a tax cut, particularly
for capitai gains, becomes lacv- the impressive
gain in equis values this vcar won't be wiped away .
The economy will benefit, too . If the bill fails, get ready
for the storm shelters,
President Clinton mav srell veto a Lotisering of the
capital gains levv as a way to bash Republicans for
being overly friendLy to the "rich ." He saill hurt nimself
more than he will hurt the GOP . :1 shakv econome
is the last thing he needs before an election .
Reoublicans <strong>and</strong> conservative Democrats don't have
the strength in this Congress to override a veto, as a
similar coalition did in 1948 . Presidcnt Truman had
used all of his mig'nt to block two earlier Republicansponsored
reductions in income taxes in 1947 . But by
April of the nest rear, Congress overrode a third ceto .
The resulting economic buo}^ancy was no small factor in
Truman's upset sictor}• later that l,car .
spectrum-aimost exponentially . There is no way the
FCC can keep up to speed on the implications of new
technological dc~'elopments such
as direct broadcast satellites,
sehich may threaten the cerv existeuce
ofcable companies .
Bv ge¢ing rid of the FCC, we
\sill get a fantastic surge of innovation
<strong>and</strong> competition
. GVhyshouldn't license-holders of spectrum
capacity be able to use it
for wlrate~er good purpose they
wish : Communications companies
should be free to compete
in any market Local telephone
companies should be open to
competition from the likes of TCI, MCI <strong>and</strong> who
knows who else . And telephone companies should be
able to compete against cable companies .
Price controls on interstate telephone prices are
THE FLAT, YELLOW BRICK ROAD TO PROSPERITY
Article by Mulcohn S . ForbesJx, published in the Spring 1995 issue of the
Durell Journal of Money <strong>and</strong> Banking .
Two FORMIDABLE OBSTACLES st<strong>and</strong> in the way of the
U .S .' entering its greatest period of economic growth
<strong>and</strong> opportunity. One is the unstable dollar, which has
been without a gold anchor for a quarter of a century
; the other is our numbingly complex, convoluted,
incomprehensible, antigrowth tax code .
The recent dollar crisis <strong>and</strong> the frightening collapse of
Mexico's economy underscore the need for a return to
a gold-based monetary system in the U .S . <strong>and</strong> globally .
The %olatile dollar is a critical reason that real gains
in wages tbr most Americans have not seen much
growth since the late 1960s . With a reliable greenback,
interest rates would be sharply lower than they are to-
(continued on p . 153,)
Forbes a August 14, 1995 23
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agf97d00/pdf