They’re lining up. Hey, aren’t those the people who have a monopoly on local telephone and cable services? Don’t look now, but I think those guys who turned our rural communities into fodder for urban sprawl are right behind them!
Telephone and cable companies -
Progressive communications group FreePress is lobbying President-Elect Obama for a $44 billion bailout aimed primarily at the telephone and cable monopolies (PDF). The money would ostensibly be used for various incentives to build out broadband connections to underserved areas such as rural locations.
FreePress calls the $50 billion in taxpayer money a “down payment on a digital future.” But what it really appears to be is a duplicate set of payments to the telephone and cable companies for infrastructure they promised to build years ago.
With a record amount of commercial real-estate debt coming due, some of the country’s biggest property developers have become the latest to go hat-in-hand to the government for assistance.
They’re warning policymakers that thousands of office complexes, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial buildings are headed into defaults, foreclosures and bankruptcies. The reason: according to research firm Foresight Analytics LCC, $530 billion of commercial mortgages will be coming due for refinancing in the next three years — with about $160 billion maturing in the next year. (via HotAir)
