Richard Bennett, the same one who criticized my column in Governing arguing for municipal fiber optic networks, had an op-ed in today’s New York Times that used some of the same arguments to criticize those who are critical of this country’s internet service. I am going to try to find the time to do a point by point rebuttal of Bennett, who excels at what appears to me at first glance rhetorical slight of hand, but for now I’d like simply to ask what is Bennett arguing for, or rather, against? To answer my own question, he appears to be implicitly arguing against greater oversight or control of the big telecommunications companies, from  Verizon to Time Warner to Comcast, that are usually brought up when people talk about slow and expensive internet speeds. A lot to me would be clearer if I knew who funds the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, where Bennett is a fellow. I suspect it gets a lot of money from these companies I mentioned, or parties associated with them. I don’t know though, because I’ve been unable to find out. If anyone does know, drop me an email.

This was a nice present that came out on my wedding anniversary. Ms. Cleveland gets it just right in this review of my latest book in The Huffington Post.

I have encountered the primal myth of money and markets many times when talking about my most recent book, The Surprising Design of Market Economies. I tell people that the state, that is government, creates markets. Inevitably someone in the audience comes back with, “Yeah, but markets are natural. Thousands of years ago, before formal governments, two farmers were trading or swapping goats for bricks, or cheese for tools, and so on.” It’s an important question for a number of reasons, but one of them is that  this idea that markets or at least market trading behavior is a basic aspect of human nature is the foundation myth of of both classical economics, and of Libertarianism. But even average, seemingly non-political and non-economics oriented people seem to hold some version of this belief.

I had my first experience today on the new New York bike share plan, https://citibikenyc.com/, and it was mostly positive.

I walked over to the check out post at 11th and 2nd Avenue, near my office at Union Square, here in NYC. It took me awhile to figure out how to check out the bike with my little key. The instructions beside the slot were completely wrong. They referred to punching in 5 numbers on the key pad. I had no five numbers, and there was no keypad. What’s up with that? All I had to do was put my blue fob into the slot. Then the light flashed green and I could lift it out. But all the talk about five numbers and a keypad confused me. And the bike would not come out. Luckily, someone else was checking in a bike, and she showed me how you had to lift the bike from the back to get it out. That worked. But I bet a lot of people will have trouble with that.

Eric Sanderson, author of the new book Terra Nova as well as Mannahatta, has a nice blog post about the many meanings of the word “Resilience.” Eric had these deep thoughts while on a panel I organized at the Eastern Economic Association convention a week ago. It was a great panel, and my thanks to Barry Lynn of the New America Foundation and to Jason Barr of Rutgers, who also participated. You can see Eric’s blog post on Resilience here.

It shows you how media saturated New York City is that I end up featured in this front-page article in the Wall Street Journal about old people who are carded when they buy alcohol. Okay not “old,” but clearly over 21. I’m happy because the author mentioned my new book, The Surprising Design of Market Economies. The mention came about because I was buying a beer while at a game of the Brooklyn Nets at the new stadium, and the reporter Barry Newman asked to interview me. Being a former reporter myself, I was happy to oblige and tried to be pithy.

Richard Bennett, a Senior Fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, has written a lengthy response to my column advocating public fiber optic networks. As I say in my response to his response, he addresses an argument I did not make, and fails to address arguments I did. You can see his and my responses here. The larger question I have is who is this ITIF? Its website gives no information on its funding, that I could find.

What the hell are the Commons and do we still have them? Yes, and overall, we have a lot more of them, despite the recent wave of privatizations over the last few decades. I’m talking though the long view. Read about it here in this nifty online magazine On The Commons.

Here’s a new Governing column of mine I think particularly important. It concerns who will control what is becoming the crucial infrastructure of the present and future, the fiber optic lines.

As I say in the column, there are parallels to the long and extensive battles that took place 50 to 100 years ago in and around electricity service. I wouldn’t be surprised if most Americans are ignorant of this. I certainly was. Turn onto it the actions that await, to our mutual benefit.

My old teacher Anthony Lewis died this week, and a melancholy descended on me, along with a sense of gratitude for my luck in experiencing his intelligence and insight directly.

I first experienced him personally in Columbia Journalism School in 1988. He taught the required 1^st Amendment law course with Vincent Blasi, a noted attorney on the subject. Every Friday, I think it was, we would trudge over to the Law school and get to sit in one of the amphitheater shaped classrooms while Lewis and Blasi taught us through the Socratic method. Based on assigned readings of cases, the two would take us through a series of questions that would lead us to the heart of the case’s importance and central issues. It was my first experience with the Socratic method, and I loved it. I was an avid participant, despite not having always read the cases thoroughly. At the end of the year, I mailed Lewis a letter expressing my appreciation.