http://kennethrcarter.com/CoolStuff/2009/03/lobbyist-to-english-phrasebook/ The Musings of an Expatriate in European Communications Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:48:00 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://kennethrcarter.com/CoolStuff/2009/03/lobbyist-to-english-phrasebook/comment-page-1/#comment-637 Zoltan Papai Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:18:13 +0000 http://kennethrcarter.com/CoolStuff/?p=69#comment-637 Your argument concerning investment-for-certain-policy issue is absolutely right. Yes, it may deserve some acceptance, but if it is backed by sound financial models. However these areguments are mostly partial, and perhaps static, and may show only the calculations of one player in a multiplayer dynamic game. It is the task of the policy maker to examine the trade-offs, balance the arguments from the different sides and judge. Unfortunately she is not in the position of omniscience and therefore may err. Good policy can be something which optimizes the consequences of such errors. I think neither the regulators nor governments are good in such judgements, and both can be captured. However regulators even have even less skills and power to manage these situations. And this is not their task either. What they should really make is rather to commit themselves not to over-regulate even there is a temptation to do that after the investment happened. It is interesting that though the European regulatory framework is a good setting for them to sormount the temtation and the pressure from national lobbies and populist politicians. Unfortunately, it seems sometimes that these populist pressures to overregulate are coming from the chief guardian of this framework, the Commision itself. That is why we need only a guardian and not a super regulator in national issues. However I must admit that there is a need for careful and balanced supranational regulatory intervention in real internal market issues, like roaming. Your argument concerning investment-for-certain-policy issue is absolutely right. Yes, it may deserve some acceptance, but if it is backed by sound financial models. However these areguments are mostly partial, and perhaps static, and may show only the calculations of one player in a multiplayer dynamic game. It is the task of the policy maker to examine the trade-offs, balance the arguments from the different sides and judge. Unfortunately she is not in the position of omniscience and therefore may err. Good policy can be something which optimizes the consequences of such errors. I think neither the regulators nor governments are good in such judgements, and both can be captured. However regulators even have even less skills and power to manage these situations. And this is not their task either. What they should really make is rather to commit themselves not to over-regulate even there is a temptation to do that after the investment happened. It is interesting that though the European regulatory framework is a good setting for them to sormount the temtation and the pressure from national lobbies and populist politicians. Unfortunately, it seems sometimes that these populist pressures to overregulate are coming from the chief guardian of this framework, the Commision itself. That is why we need only a guardian and not a super regulator in national issues. However I must admit that there is a need for careful and balanced supranational regulatory intervention in real internal market issues, like roaming.

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