Sprint, and Their Proposed Merger, Take a Hit Today

The Sprint company and the idea of its merger with T-Mobile takes a hit today in the New York Times.

Stop Creating Corporate Goliaths

A little of what they have to say.

Letting T-Mobile merge with Sprint would hurt consumers, workers and the economy

For years, T-Mobile’s chief executive, John Legere, has gleefully bad-mouthed his much larger mobile phone competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, for their high prices and profit margins, and their low-quality service. Decked out in magenta sneakers and T-shirts, sporting long hair like an aging rocker, Mr. Legere promoted T-Mobile and himself to his 6.2 million Twitter followers as renegades — telephonic cool kids.

T-Mobile wooed customers by offering service plans with no long-term commitments, and by paying to free those customers from their old service plans. Rolling your unused data and minutes into the next month? T-Mobile did that, and AT&T and Verizon had no choice but to follow. More recently, T-Mobile vowed to match any discounts offered by competitors.

The fierce competition, and the march of technology, has rapidly reduced the cost of mobile phone service. Since 2009, the average cost of mobile service has fallen by roughly 28 percent, according to the Labor Department’s calculations. In 2017, at the peak of the mobile phone price wars, the Federal Reserve said prices were falling fast enough to meaningfully reduce inflation across the entire American economy.

That’s the beauty of competition. It’s been good for T-Mobile, too. Over the past five years, the company has added more subscribers than its larger rivals.

Now T-Mobile, the nation’s third-largest wireless company, wants to merge with Sprint, the No. 4 wireless carrier in the United States. The combined company would be in the same weight class as the two largest, AT&T and Verizon, with the three companies each controlling roughly a third of the market. Mr. Legere, who scorned the big guys, now wants to be one of them.

The Justice Department’s antitrust division staff has recommended that the federal government go to court to block the merger. That is good advice.

The proposed merger would harm American consumers. It would reduce the choice of service plans, and, over time, it is likely to result in higher prices and less innovation. It would also harm workers in the mobile phone industry, reducing competition for their labor. And it would increase the political power of the combined corporation...

On the one hand, this is coming from none other than The New York Times so it's going to carry some weight. It's certainly going to be on everyone's "radar", so to speak. 

On the other hand, boys will be boys and money buys all, especially in our current national government. This may be a conversation for a while--a few days?--but when all is said and done, the FCC and this administration will do what they will, customers and nation be damned.

Look for the Sprint-T-Mobile merger to go through. We hope not but these things usually don't go for the people.

But thanks, anyway, New York Times, for trying.

The Trump Administration

What you get when you place people against government, IN your government.

Insanity.

Link:  Oh Dear God. They're Giving Rick Perry Nukes.

Betsy DeVos and the Plan to Break Public Schools

Labor Day, Labor and Labor Unions

Happy Labor Day

The NFL: The Perfect, Selfish, Heartless, Capitalist Business?

I pointed out here before how the National Football League, the NFL, amazingly doesn't pay any tazes.

None, whatever.

They're a "non-profit", according to the Internal Revenue Service:

How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers 

The NFL Doesn't Need Tax Exempt Status

Now, it turns out the NFL doesn't want to even pay a true, minimum wage, either:

U.S. Labor Department Calls NFL Cheerleaders 'Seasonal Amusement' -- Says They Don't Deserve Minimum Wage

Isn't that beautiful?

And if you're an NFL team owner, like Clark Huntand the Hunt family, and you want to have your stadium renovated, what do you do? Why, you do what the Kansas City Chiefs (KCChiefs)  and even the Kansas City Royals do and go with your hat in your hand, out to the city and county you're in and ask--or blackmail--the people there to take the expense on themselves, even if they are middle- or lower-class schlubs.  You know, people who are trying to make a living and who are trying to keep their heads above water, financially, and who, by the way, DO pay tazes.

Oops.

This has got to make the people over at Walmart green with envy. Up to now, with this information, they likely thought they had the perfect profit-making, people-abusing business model and profit center.

And the question is, America:  why do we tolerate this nonsense, this abuse?

Good news for America; Bad news for Republicans

Just announced this morning:

Unemployment rates fall in two-thirds of US states

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates fell in two-thirds of U.S. states last month, evidence that modest economic growth is boosting hiring in most areas of the country.

And in many states, unemployment has fallen well below the national average, which was 8.1 percent last month. Rates were lower than 7 percent in 22 states in April. That compares to only 13 states in April 2011.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates dropped in 37 states in April, the most in three months. Unemployment rose in 5 states and was unchanged in eight.

Nationally, the unemployment rate has fallen a full percentage point since August. Employers have added a million jobs over the past five months, although the pace of hiring slowed in March and April.

Good for Americans.

Good for the country.

Good for all us working stiffs.

Bad for the Republican political party.

The haters.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/unemployment-rates-fall-two-thirds-us-states-143609469--finance.html

Good for the country--the Republicans don't want this

Great economic news out today: The number of people signing up for unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in two months, an encouraging sign that companies aren't resorting to deeper layoffs even as the economy has lost momentum. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for unemployment aid plunged last week by a seasonally adjusted 27,000 to 451,000. Economists had predicted a much smaller decline of just 2,000. In a second hopeful sign, the government said the trade deficit narrowed significantly in July as exports climbed to the highest level in nearly two years. The narrower gap reflected big gains in exports of U.S.-made airplanes and other manufactured goods. Imports declined. Together, the two reports eased fears that the economy might slide back into recession. But the thing is, good as these are for the country, it's not what Republicans want to hear right now. Anything good for the country is bad for them--bad for their election chances this Fall. I'll say again, anything good for President Obama--and so, the country--is not wanted by the Republicans until at least 2012, if not 2016. The Republicans are scared to death of having this President and his party--the Democrats--strong and in power even for a few more campaign cycles, let alone for the next decade or two or three, as happened after FDR took us through the Great Depression. The "Party of No"--the Republicans--is not the "Party of Ideas". They may not know what they'll do if returned to power but they do know what they don't want. Link to original story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy