Reader John Thacker points me to this great interview with Michael Powell.

If you're Vonage, a young IP (Internet protocol) telephony company, you don't have a 30-person regulatory shop in Washington. But Verizon does. And AT&T has 40 lawyers in Washington dedicated to regulatory issues.

The line that Thacker liked best:

I have no problem if a big and venerable company no longer exists tomorrow, as long as that value is transferred somewhere else in the economy.

I believe that the position of FCC chairman is the most important economic policy job outside of the Federal Reserve. I feel that we are blessed that Michael Powell has that job. I would rather have Powell at the FCC and the non-entities that Bush has appointed to head Treasury than have Reed Hundt at the FCC and Robert Rubin (for whom I have considerable respect) at Treasury. The FCC is more important, in my opinion.