...Case Study 5: Net Neutrality Q2. Do some Internet research to identify the current status of Net Neutrality legislation being considered by Congress. Briefly summarize the content of the legislation. Net Neutrality in the United States has been an increasingly heated issue since the Internet blossomed. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has power to regulate "interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories" (FCC, n.d.). It would, therefore, seem a natural fit to include the Internet as another means of regulated communication. Currently, FCC regulations shape Net Neutrality more than laws. However, the FCC has recently been deemed by the court to lack the authority to enforce Net Neutrality. It's Open Internet Order, a set of policies prohibiting the blocking or charging of services by ISPs, was largely struck down in early 2014 in the ruling of Verizon v. Federal Communications Commission (Weil, 2014). The reasoning of the court was that the FCC cannot regulate the broadband providers because they are defined as data services, not telecommunication services. Since that ruling, the FCC has been considering policies involving tiered Internet access, but has yet to act. Since the court struck down FCC rule of network neutrality, there have been several attempts to enact laws regarding Net Neutrality. These include: • S. 1981, The Open Internet Preservation...
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...term 'net neutrality' was coined by Tim Wu, a professor at the Columbia Law School, and first used in his paper 'Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination' in 2003. Net neutrality, also referred to as 'Internet neutrality' or 'network neutrality', is a regulatory concept which eliminates any type of discrimination in transmission and access of content on the Internet. It is based on the principle that websites which provide content and users who access this content are equal, and nobody should be given preferential treatment at the cost of others. The advocates of net neutrality believe that the Internet should remain an open marketplace, for which it is important that the Internet service providers stay neutral. Net neutrality -- based on the open marketplace principle -- already exists, and that's why everybody gets equal access to the Internet. In its current form, however, it is nothing more than a set of professional ethics - with no concrete legislation, and therefore no compulsion of implementation. It may not seem a problem today, but what if someone decides to do away with the ethical part tomorrow. Say, for instance, what if the broadband carriers get to decide what you get to access on the Internet? What if your service provider decides that you will be charged more if you want access to Facebook and YouTube? It would definitely be unfair, and that's where a proper net neutrality legislation would come to your rescue. The proponents of net neutrality argue...
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...The idea of net neutrality has been around since the invention of the telegram and telephone system. This idea of neutrality led to the passage of the Communications Act of 1934 which regulates telecommunications by prohibiting preferential treatment and unfair consumer costs (The Communications Act of 1934). However, the term “net neutrality” as it pertains to the internet was first used by Tim Wu in 2003 in his article “Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination” (Wu, 2003). In March of 2005, the concept became more well known when the internet service provider (ISP) Madison River Communications was caught blocking all of its subscribers from using a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service called Vonage. The company blocked this service because their own telecommunications service was competing against Vonage’s lower prices, made possible by utilizing customers’ internet connections instead of telephone lines (Ante & Crockett, 2005). Vonage made a complaint to the FCC, and Madison River Communications had to pay a $15,000 fine (Regan, 2005). Later in 2005, the FCC released an internet policy statement, which outlined support for an early version of net neutrality. This statement was meant to “encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet” by adopting the following principles: • allowing consumers access to the lawful internet content of their choice, • allowing consumers access to run applications...
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...Why is the FCC trying to enforce net neutrality? So lately social media has been a buzz because of the fact that people including myself found out that you may have to pay to use certain aspects of the internet. I believe there is no point because that's just taking away so many opportunities for everybody everybody might not have the money to pay for certain things and you have to pay monthly to use the internet on top of that have to pay to use the internet from your internet provider to keep the internet on which is to much money in my opinion. If the FCC gets approved and then we pretty much are going back to the stone age. I’m still try to figure out what was the purpose of making people pay for internet, some people don’t even like paying...
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...Sumrina Khan Net Neutrality In America The issue about net neutrality is an ongoing debate. FCC have been trying to fight on this topic net neutrality but it's always has had its pros and cons. There are different opinions about it. First of all let's define net neutrality it is the concept that internet service providers should allow all access to contents without blocking any websites or sources. People should be able to access everything on the internet it should be open internet access. Although that is not the case because there are people against it they say that every website should not be open. Many questions are raised about how net neutrality can be protected and so forth. I believe that the FCC needs to protect net neutrality by making a new set of rules there should be strict rules as long as customers can do everything they need to it be so much better that way its more safe for everyone to use. If done so then the technology will change for the better. People will have the internet they will learn new things and use it in a more appropriate way. They should make sure that they are enforcing those rules. If they have those rules people will be more aware of what content is good to see on the internet and what is not. Moreover FCC needs to promote it. It should be easier for people to access the internet whenever they want to. It should be legalized for everyone. The internet...
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...public has access to the Internet” (“Free Essay”). Internet is filled with a lot of information on almost every topic in the world and anyone can access that information anytime he or she wants and most often that information is available for free. The very fact that everything is so easily available over the internet has become a cause of great concern because people can access information that they are not supposed to view. This has given the rise to a great debate over the use internet regulation versus the concept of net neutrality. “Internet regulation is basically restricting or controlling access to certain aspects or information” (“Internet Regulation”). The proponents of regulation argue that some form of government intervention is necessary to keep a check on the information people access over the internet because that information might be a source of harm for the society in general. Whereas on the other hand, the proponents of concept of net neutrality state that if a person pays for his internet access, then there should be no restrictions on the content that he can view. Because internet is filled with all sorts of information and anyone can access unsuitable information at anytime, some sort of government intervention is necessary in the form of internet...
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...The FCC Have you ever wondered who you could complain to if you were offended by an indecent program aired on cable television? Or how to get those pesky junk faxes to stop? Are telemarketers ignoring your request to be added to a Do-Not-Call list? Maybe you’ve asked yourself “Who decides if the discussion on my favorite radio show is appropriate for my children to listen to?” These are just a few of the issues handled by the FCC. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. (About the FCC) They are responsible to Congress for the enforcement of laws and regulation of media ownership; including the broadcast stations and newspapers. The commission was created with the Communications Act of 1934 as recommended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This Act serves as the policy for the FCC and bans it from censoring broadcast material. The Communication Act was later amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act states, for the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing...
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...Indian economy up to 1947: * Low use of technology * Dependent on imports * Exporter or raw materials, mainly to England * Completely destroyed traditional industries * Nascent stages of development of a small group of capitalists Debate on type of economic system to be adopted: * Capitalist v/s socialist * Bombay plan of 1944 * USA v/s USSR * Prevailing socio economic conditions Beginning of FYPs * Borrowed the concept from USSR * Tweaked it according to prevailing situations * Nehru Mahalanobis model * Emphasis on self reliance, PSUs, and vibrant SMEs * Trickledown effect and strong basic industries * Criticism Some important events: * 1948- Pakistan war * 1962- China war * 1965- Pakistan war * 1971- Liberation of Bangladesh * 1970s- oil and energy crises * 1975- Emergency * 1991- BOP crisis From 1947-1979: * First FYP 1951-1956- emphasis on Agriculture * Second FYP 1956-1961- emphasis on industry * Third FYP 1961- 1966 – balance between both * Three yearly plans from 1966-1969 * Nationalization of banks 1969 * Up to now most of the banks except SBI were owned by private individuals * 14 banks were nationalized. They had about 85 percent of the total deposits * Fourth FYP 1969-1974- emphasis on social justice * Whatever liberal measures initiated since independence were reversed * Recall the events discussed earlier *...
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...C H A P T E R 2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR FINANCIAL REPORTING LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: •1 •2 •3 •4 Describe the usefulness of a conceptual framework. Describe efforts to construct a conceptual framework. Understand the objective of financial reporting. Identify the qualitative characteristics of accounting information. Define the basic elements of financial statements. •6 •7 Describe the basic assumptions of accounting. Explain the application of the basic principles of accounting. Describe the impact that constraints have on reporting accounting information. •8 •5 What Is It? Everyone agrees that accounting needs a framework—a conceptual framework, so to speak—that will help guide the development of standards. To understand the importance of developing this framework, let’s see how you would respond in the following two situations. SITUATION 1: “Taking a Long Shot . . . ” To supplement donations collected from its general community solicitation, Tri-Cities United Charities holds an Annual Lottery Sweepstakes. In this year’s sweepstakes, United Charities is offering a grand prize of $1,000,000 to a single winning ticket holder. A total of 10,000 tickets have been printed, and United Charities plans to sell all the tickets at a price of $150 each. Since its inception, the Sweepstakes has attracted area-wide interest, and United Charities has always been able to meet its sales target. However, in the...
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...CHAPTER 1 ENVIRONMENT AND THEORETICAL STRUCTURE OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING Overview The primary function of financial accounting is to provide useful financial information to users external to the business enterprise. The focus of financial accounting is on the information needs of investors and creditors. These users make critical resource allocation decisions that affect the nation’s economy. The primary means of conveying financial information to investors, creditors, and other external users is through financial statements and related notes. In this chapter you explore important topics such as the FASB’s conceptual framework that serve as a foundation for a more detailed study of financial statements, the way the elements of these statements are measured, and the concepts underlying these measurements and related disclosures. Learning Objectives LO1–1 Describe the function and primary focus of financial accounting. LO1–2 Explain the difference between cash and accrual accounting. LO1–3 Define generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and discuss the historical development of accounting standards, including convergence between U.S. and international standards. LO1–4 Explain why the establishment of accounting standards is characterized as a political process. LO1–5 Explain factors that encourage high-quality financial reporting. LO1–6 Explain the purpose of the conceptual framework. LO1–7 Identify the objective and qualitative characteristics...
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...April 9, 2014 Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens Martin Gilens Princeton University mgilens@princeton.edu Benjamin I. Page Northwestern University b-page@northwestern.edu forthcoming Fall 2014 in Perspectives on Politics For helpful comments the authors are indebted to Larry Bartels and Jeff Isaacs, to three anonymous reviewers, and to seminar participants at Harvard and Rochester Universities. Gilens and Page Testing Theories of American Politics 2 Abstract Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics – which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic Elite Domination, and two types of interest group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism – offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. This paper reports on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent...
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...companies use financial statements as one of the major medium of communication with their stakeholders. Therefore, stock market regulators and accounting standards setters trying to improve the quality of financial statements in order to increase the transparency level in financial reporting. (Vishnani S., Shah B.K., 2008). Financial reporting by companies is effected via the preparation and publication of financial statements. These financial statements are required to exhibit certain degree of quality in terms of their information contents. Mines & Wahlen (2006) and Belkaoui (2002) opined that accounting information contained in the financial reports should possess certain qualities as relevance, verifiability, understandability, neutrality, timeliness, comparability, and completeness. When the financial reports disclose quality accounting information, according to Benston (2007), the decision of the users (investors, management, government, employees, creditors, analysts) of the reports could as well be qualitative and informed. While there have been a number of studies on this topic in developed countries (Collins, Maydew and Weiss, 1997; Lev and Zarowin, 1999; Francis and Schipper, 1999; Beisland, Hamberg and Navak, 2010), one is not aware of any expansive study that has explored the subject of value relevance of accounting information in Nigeria. It has not been comprehensively researched primarily because of problems with data availability (Negah 2008). Literature...
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...Journal of Banking & Finance 22 (1998) 613±673 The economics of small business ®nance: The roles of private equity and debt markets in the ®nancial growth cycle Allen N. Berger a a,b,* , Gregory F. Udell c Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551, USA b Wharton Financial Institutions Center, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA c Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA Abstract This article examines the economics of ®nancing small business in private equity and debt markets. Firms are viewed through a ®nancial growth cycle paradigm in which different capital structures are optimal at dierent points in the cycle. We show the sources of small business ®nance, and how capital structure varies with ®rm size and age. The interconnectedness of small ®rm ®nance is discussed along with the impact of the macroeconomic environment. We also analyze a number of research and policy issues, review the literature, and suggest topics for future research. Ó 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classi®cation: G21; G28; G34; E58; L89 Keywords: Venture capital; Small business lending; Bank; Mergers 1. Introduction The role of the entrepreneurial enterprise as an engine of economic growth has garnered considerable public attention in the 1990s. Much of this focus * Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 202 452 2903; fax: 1 202 452 5295; e-mail: aberger@frb.gov. 0378-4266/98/$19.00 Ó 1998 Published...
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...Solutions to Problems and Exercises Table of Contents Chapter 1 5 CA 1-4 5 CA 1-6 5 CA 1-8 6 CA 1-10 7 CA 1-12 8 CA 1-17 9 Chapter 2 10 CE2-2 10 CE2-3 10 EXERCISE 2-2 11 EXERCISE 2-3 12 EXERCISE 2-4 13 CA 2-4 13 Chapter 3 15 EXERCISE 3-6 15 EXERCISE 3-10 16 EXERCISE 3-13 19 EXERCISE 3-15 19 EXERCISE 3-20 20 Chapter 4 22 PROBLEM 4-1 22 PROBLEM 4-3 25 PROBLEM 4-5 27 PROBLEM 4-7 29 Chapter 5 31 PROBLEM 5-2 31 PROBLEM 5-4 34 Chapter 6 37 EXERCISE 6-3 37 EXERCISE 6-6 38 Chapter 7 39 PROBLEM 7-2 39 PROBLEM 7-4 41 PROBLEM 7-9 43 PROBLEM 7-11 46 EXERCISE 7-25 48 EXERCISE 7-26 50 Chapter 8 52 EXERCISE 8-23 52 EXERCISE 8-25 53 PROBLEM 8-5 55 PROBLEM 8-11 59 Chapter 9 62 PROBLEM 9-1 62 EXERCISE 9-7 64 EXERCISE 9-9 66 PROBLEM 9-4 67 PROBLEM 9-6 68 Chapter 17 70 EXERCISE 17-6 70 Chapter 18 71 PROBLEM 18-1 71 PROBLEM 18-4 74 PROBLEM 18-6 76 PROBLEM 18-7 79 PROBLEM 18-8 81 EXERCISE 18-20 82 EXERCISE 18-21 82 Chapter 22 84 EXERCISE 22-2 84 EXERCISE 22-8 84 EXERCISE 22-11 84 Chapter 23 86 EXERCISE 23-11 86 EXERCISE 23-13 88 EXERCISE 23-15 90 Chapter 1 CA 1-4 It is not appropriate to abandon mandatory accounting rules and allow each company to voluntarily disclose the type of information it considered important. Without a coherent body of accounting theory and standards, each accountant or enterprise would have to develop its own theory structure and set of practices, and readers of financial...
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...Solutions to Problems and Exercises Table of Contents Chapter 1 5 CA 1-4 5 CA 1-6 5 CA 1-8 6 CA 1-10 7 CA 1-12 8 CA 1-17 9 Chapter 2 10 CE2-2 10 CE2-3 10 EXERCISE 2-2 11 EXERCISE 2-3 12 EXERCISE 2-4 13 CA 2-4 13 Chapter 3 15 EXERCISE 3-6 15 EXERCISE 3-10 16 EXERCISE 3-13 19 EXERCISE 3-15 19 EXERCISE 3-20 20 Chapter 4 22 PROBLEM 4-1 22 PROBLEM 4-3 25 PROBLEM 4-5 27 PROBLEM 4-7 29 Chapter 5 31 PROBLEM 5-2 31 PROBLEM 5-4 34 Chapter 6 37 EXERCISE 6-3 37 EXERCISE 6-6 38 Chapter 7 39 PROBLEM 7-2 39 PROBLEM 7-4 41 PROBLEM 7-9 43 PROBLEM 7-11 46 EXERCISE 7-25 48 EXERCISE 7-26 50 Chapter 8 52 EXERCISE 8-23 52 EXERCISE 8-25 53 PROBLEM 8-5 55 PROBLEM 8-11 59 Chapter 9 62 PROBLEM 9-1 62 EXERCISE 9-7 64 EXERCISE 9-9 66 PROBLEM 9-4 67 PROBLEM 9-6 68 Chapter 17 70 EXERCISE 17-6 70 Chapter 18 71 PROBLEM 18-1 71 PROBLEM 18-4 74 PROBLEM 18-6 76 PROBLEM 18-7 79 PROBLEM 18-8 81 EXERCISE 18-20 82 EXERCISE 18-21 82 Chapter 22 84 EXERCISE 22-2 84 EXERCISE 22-8 84 EXERCISE 22-11 84 Chapter 23 86 EXERCISE 23-11 86 EXERCISE 23-13 88 EXERCISE 23-15 90 Chapter 1 CA 1-4 It is not appropriate to abandon mandatory accounting rules and allow each company to voluntarily disclose the type of information it considered important. Without a coherent body of accounting theory and standards, each accountant or enterprise would have to develop its own theory structure and set of practices, and readers of financial...
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