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November 24, 2009

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Air Traffic Control Reform Newsletter #68

NextGen, banning laptops in cockpits, increasing air traffic capacity and future transportation policy

Robert Poole

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The Packets Must Get Through

From the book "The Consequences of Net Neutrality Regulations on Broadband Investment and Consumer Welfare"

Steven Titch

For all the talk about preserving a free and open Internet, network neutrality’s non-discrimination rule would do neither. As bandwidth consumption increases almost geometrically, today’s Internet needs commercial options that include prioritization, bandwidth optimization, applications partitioning and packet prioritization. If the Internet’s going to work, the packets must get through.

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Your Flight Has Been Delayed -
And It's Washington's Fault

Reason.tv and Robert Poole examine the nation's air traffic control problems

As the holiday travel rush approaches, air travelers grounded by delays should take a moment to think about why they're stuck in airports or on the tarmac. There's a good chance Washington is to blame.

"The air traffic control system in the United States is technologically obsolete," says Robert W. Poole, Jr., director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation. "This model is basically the same model that we have used since the beginning of air travel."

The technology the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) uses to navigate $200 million jets is less advanced than the GPS technology drivers use to navigate $20,000 cars.

Poole says the system could safely handle more planes if the FAA used modern technology that would provide real-time information about where planes are. But the funding process, overseen by pork-hungry members of Congress, often thwarts technology upgrades. 

The only way to get the politics out of our air traffic system is to take the system away from the politicians. Why not let a private corporation manage the skies?

That may sound like a far-out, free-market idea, but Canada doesn't think so.

Our neighbors to the north often take pride in their lavish government programs, yet they allow a private corporation called Nav Canada to manage their air-traffic control system. Canada's approach, often called commercialization, has some surprising supporters in the U.S., including Al Gore, who pushed for commercialization when he was vice president.

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Bernanke's Philosopher

The Fed chairman is portrayed as a follower of John Maynard Keynes, but his real inspiration is Milton Friedman

Penn Bullock

These days, the media have taken to calling him a Keynesian—a believer in fiscal stimulus and the mixed economy. “We are all Keynesians again,” the liberal Washington Monthly headlined a January 2009 feature on the Fed chief. In reality, Bernanke is following a monetarist depression-prevention model laid out by Nobel laureate and libertarian patron saint Milton Friedman.

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Where's That Inflation?

The monetary base has ballooned, yet inflation remains far off. Or does it?

Veronique de Rugy

Inflation is not only a monetary phenomenon but also a political one. Which makes it that much more difficult to predict, much less control.

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