In describing the intense lobbying efforts by Comcast last year to close its merger with NBC Universal, legal scholar Susan Crawford put it this way to the New York Times: “It’s about as subtle as a wet fish in the face.”
That makes last week’s announcement by Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker the proverbial Mack truck. Baker is resigning to take a top lobbying position at …NBC Universal in Washington, just months after she voted to approve the deal.
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[Researchers] charted the top salaries of financial regulators versus the top salaries of those they regulate on Wall Street. From 1949 to the late 1970′s, there was almost no gap. But the divide cracked open in the late 1970′s, and grew larger until it exploded starting in the early 1990′s.
Regulatory capture is the focal point of Washington dysfunction. Until it is fixed, nothing will change.
