You Say You Want a Revolution or A Guide to the Euro

You Say You Want a Revolution

Author: Reed E Hundt

This book is a unique account of the way politics has shaped the information age in America. Reed E. Hundt, chairman from 1993 to 1997 of the Federal Communications Commission, the nation’s chief regulatory agency for media and communications industries, tells of the battles for political advantage that lie behind the enormous creation of wealth and social changes that are generally called the “New Economy.” The central theme of the narrative is the surprising passage and fascinating implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which authorized the Federal Communications Commission to replace monopoly with competition and to guarantee access to the Internet to all Americans, including every child in every classroom.

Depending on the leadership of his high school classmate Al Gore and finding unexpected allies in the ranks of free market ideologues, Hundt led the FCC to make the decisions that helped start a wave of entrepreneurship, which in turn has given the United States the world’s leading Internet economy. As the memoir shows, every decision involved prodigious political battles—between existing industries and start-ups, between Newt Gingrich and the Clinton-Gore White House, between inside-the-Beltway lobbyists and the new grassroots advocacy of e-mails, between the politics of money and the politics of ideas. In the same period, the often ignored and historically maligned FCC was the place where government decided whether to undertake the largest national initiative to reform K–12 education in the country’s history: the program to connect every classroom to the Internet by the year 2001.

Hundt’s reportfrom the political battlefield offers significant insight into the motives and personality not only of Al Gore but other prominent figures in political life, as well as many of the media moguls of our time. Told with great energy and wit, it is a tale that inspires both concern for and confidence in our democracy in the information age.

Publishers Weekly

The Wall Street Journal branded him a "French bureaucrat," and cable television magnate John Malone famously quipped that he should be shot. But it was all in a day's work for former FCC chairman Hundt, who served as chief regulator and de facto architect of the New Economy from 1993 to 1997. In this insightful and good-natured memoir of his experiences at the helm of the "deep-inside-the-Beltway" regulatory agency, Hundt recounts the savage battles he waged to help introduce competition and technological change into America's communications markets, all the while shielding consumers from profit-hungry cable and telephone lobbies. The former lawyer was propelled to center stage with the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which empowered the FCC to interpret the thousands of regulatory decisions required by the law. As vulturelike lobbyists swooped down to win concessions on everything from digital television to long-distance rates, Hundt kept to a high-minded mission to connect the Internet to every classroom in America and called for more public programming on broadcast media. While his consistent poise amid roiling market forces is commendable, Hundt's narrative occasionally gets waylaid when justifying a certain policy decision or waxing piously about Al Gore. Such digressions, however, are compensated for by a welcome sense of humor, evident in one anecdote about a trip to discuss communications policy in Ireland: after Hundt laid out his master plan for a globally networked society, one member of the Irish contingent shot back, "Can you pour Guinness by e-mail? Then there will always be an Ireland!" (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

The Standard

Early in Reed Hundt's tenure as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Vice President Al Gore called him to the White House for a chat. From day one, the Clinton appointee, who had gone to law school with the president and high school with the vice president, had stepped on enough toes for it to get back to the White House.

Gore proceeded to tell him a story about a dog-food salesman who created the best product ever made. But the man went out of business. The problem? "The dogs don't like the dog food," Gore said. Gore's message: It doesn't matter how good your decisions are if the top dogs in power won't accept them.

So begins Hundt's tale of passing the 1996 Telecommunications Act. As FCC chairman through the first term of the Clinton presidency, Hundt weathered the 1994 Republican takeover of the House and Senate - a time when Newt Gingrich indirectly declared war on the FCC, among other branches of the government. He also weathered such descriptions of himself in the press as "The Curse of Yale Law School."

But by the time Hundt stepped down, he saw his vision come to fruition - auctions of the wireless communications spectrum, federal requirements for educational television and new rulings that encouraged competition among the telephone and cable industries, which helped in no small part to fuel the Internet boom.

From Hundt's description in his new book, You Say You Want a Revolution, he was in for a rude shock on his first day at work at the FCC. The refrigerator emitted noxious odors and the walls were covered in textiles that, according to Hundt, needed to be mowed. But the stories he tells from his days inside those walls are lively and instructional, especially for the high-tech community. If those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it, then Hundt's book is a good read for those who want to ensure technology continues on an upward climb.

When Hundt writes about himself, he's a one-man band of self-depreciation. At first it's humorous to see him bumbling his way through lunches with Washington's power elite and making one bad political move after another. At one point he remarks during a lunch at the Washington Post that the cable industry should be "grateful" he demanded rate reductions.

But while he's clear on his own version of events, his grasp of technology is more muddled. He fawns over Bill Gates, crediting him with creating the Microsoft operating system - when Gates in fact bought the original MS-DOS from a Seattle programmer.

Other famous characters take center stage as well. We meet Ted Turner, who sarcastically praises Hundt for killing Turner's plans to donate part of his fortune to charity. And we cringe under Mike Ovitz's predatory stare. But eventually these meetings begin to sound cliche, such as when George Lucas - apparently startled at an awards show when Hundt asks him to lobby for wiring classrooms to the Internet - replies Yoda-like, "Help can I? Let me know."

The book also jumps around. Although organized as a diary, it can be difficult to follow. In some places, even Hundt appears confused, as he often repeats himself. While the chronological style may be true to the timing of events, for the layman it can make for glazed eyes. And it is the average reader who should read Hundt's book, not only the high-tech entrepreneur who might learn from whence his current opportunities sprang.

Toward the end of his job, Hundt learns a crucial lesson. A Republican governor gloats about his use of convicts in wiring classrooms. "But in my new nonglib era," writes Hundt, "I let the moment pass." In politics, he finally learns that while journalists may appreciate a razor-edge comment, it always comes back to bite you.

What People Are Saying

Andrew S. Grove
Hundt was a referee in the free-for-all that was the transformation of the US communications world. As often happens to referees, he was bustled and pummeled by all sides. Yet, he clearly enjoyed it all and lived to tell the tale - cheerfully and intelligently.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Cast of Characters

Part I: Experience Keeps a Dear School

Part II: Changes and Choices

Part III: Remember Who You Are

Index

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A Guide to the Euro

Author: Jay H Levin

In this concise and comprehensive introduction to Europe's currency, Levin explains both the historical and political background as well as the economic underpinnings of monetary integration in contemporary Europe.