How the revolving door leads to weak regulation
You’ve heard about the FCC commissioner, Meredith Baker, who has taken a job with NBC Universal (as senior VP for government affairs, of course) just four months after voting to approve the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal. Then there’s the the too-cozy relationship between regulators at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the power companies they are supposed to regulate, because many employees at the NRC are aiming to land top jobs in industry when they leave government service. And let’s not forget that beyond-cozy relationships in the oil and gas regulation business helped create a culture of permissiveness that made catastrophes like the Deepwater Horizon explosion more likely. (more…)