Who'll Benefit from the SBC-Ameritech Merger

''Is the FCC chief all talk?'' (News: Analysis & Commentary, Oct. 25) unfairly criticizes Chairman William E. Kennard without any mention of the groundbreaking conditions and concessions offered by the merging companies to assuage public-interest concerns raised about the combination. The Federal Communications Commission's decision to allow this merger carries with it an unprecedented increase in competitive options for consumers.

NorthPoint Communications Inc. provides high-speed access to the Internet over telephone lines through digital-subscriber-line (DSL) technology in competition with local phone companies. As we compete with the incumbent phone companies--and we often voice frustration at the incumbent phone companies' ability to slow down the consumer benefits of competition by leveraging their monopoly power--we have a real grasp of the impediments to delivering the fruits of a competitive telecom marketplace.

The conditions of the FCC's approval of the merger between SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp. will advance competition in the market for residential broadband DSL by establishing dozens of new requirements to ensure that competitive companies can provide valuable services to consumers in the SBC-Ameritech territory. Among other conditions, SBC-Ameritech is now required to provide advanced services such as DSL through a separate subsidiary. This assures that competitors and the phone monopoly alike will be on equal footing in the race to serve consumers. Adoption of the separate affiliate approach by the FCC, Ameritech, and SBC is a fundamental shift in favor of broadband competition in this nation. Moreover, the conditions include an array of other procompetitive requirements that are tied to unprecedented $1 billion enforcement mechanisms to ensure that SBC-Ameritech delivers on its promises.

Chairman Kennard and the FCC have led the way to realizing the promise of the Telecommunications Act: lower prices, more choice, and better service. The FCC's approval of the SBC-Ameritech merger, with its unprecedented market-opening conditions, is another step toward bringing broadband to all America.

Elizabeth A. Fetter
President
NorthPoint Communications Inc.
San Francisco

''Consumer Reports Is a Priceless Asset''

Why are subscribers and nonsubscriber readers of Consumer Reports so loyal (''No ads. No links. Just loyalty'' Media, Oct. 25)? Because CR gives them near-scientific, reproducible ratings of products based on careful testing of a representative set. Consumers Union--the organization--does what we all might do if we had the time, money, and expertise: It buys samples of each product/brand anonymously, checks that sample items conform to manufacturer's specifications, subjects them to standard, defensible tests, and combines them into ratings that readers understand.

How do we know Consumers Union is honest? The staff members have a sense of ''mission.'' (I have known many of them.) They have never been successfully sued by manufacturers whose products they downrated. They accept no advertising.

Consumer Reports is a priceless asset. It is one of the anomalies of 21st century capitalism that CR has revenues of $140 million while manufacturers/retailers have billions to put into advertising puffery.

E. Scott Maynes
Professor Emeritus
Consumer Economics & Housing
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y.

Does Japan Inc. Suffer from Too Much Gray Hair?

I enjoyed ''A new Japan?'' (Special Report, Oct. 25) and the related editorial, ''A subtle shift in Japan,'' (Editorials, Oct. 25). It is an impressive marshaling of evidence for and against the prospect of change in Japan.

The story would have benefited, however, from a more thorough investigation of the relentless underlying pressures for change: globalization, the maturation of Japan's domestic economy, and especially critically, the rapid aging of Japan's population. Combined, these forces give that nation little option but to change radically from the closed, centrally controlled manufacturer-and-export powerhouse that the world has come to know.

Milton Ezrati
New York


Your interpretation of history is not quite correct. The period of the late-Tokugawa and early-Meiji era--say, from the 1850s to the 1890s--witnessed a great deal of popular ferment. This was a revolution from below. Of course, once the revolutionaries had won and were in control the government, they then proceeded to dictate from above--as is the case with all revolutionaries who win.

In drawing the historical parallel, while I see in Japan today a lot of contemporary versions of old daimyo (feudal lords) running business and government, apart from a few mavericks here and there, what is lacking are the fiery young samurai who drove Japan's very successful modernization in the 19th century. The Meiji leaders were in their 20s and 30s, with the oldest, Tomomi Iwakura, in his 40s.

One of Japan's main problems and cause for its continued sclerosis is the omnipresence of old men and the absence of young, dynamic leaders in the mainstream of society. Next year, Jack Welch will be stepping down after 20 years as CEO of General Electric Co.--at an age when most Japanese company presidents begin their tenure! When I see a 40-year-old president of a major Japanese company (Toshiba, NEC, NIT)--and even better if it's a woman--then I will believe that Japan is changing. In the meantime, I am afraid we have little more than straws in the wind. Old men don't change, and in Japan they don't even fade away--they just stay and stay and stay.

Jean-Pierre Lehmann
Professor of International
Political Economy
International Institute for
Management Development
Lausanne, Switzerland

Genetically Modified Foods: Label before You Leap

In ''Furor over 'Frankenfood''' (News: Analysis & Commentary, Oct. 18) you raise the issue of whether or not labels should be mandatory on genetically modified foods. This discussion is much needed and deserves wider attention. Especially alarming is one of the arguments presented: that genetically modified foods are highly technical and that the public may misinterpret the technological complexity. Implicit in the argument is that prejudice rather than knowledge may prevent consumers from buying genetically modified foods. The argument aims to prevent such labeling so such products can sell obscurely among other foods on the European market, where the public is especially sensitive to the origin of food.

The adoption of such a policy needs careful consideration. First, technological complexity cannot be used as an excuse for depriving consumers of the right to make informed choices.

Og Green
Ohio

Take a Long Vacation, Inflation Hawks

''Poverty in America'' (Special Report, Oct. 18) was enlightening, even to a staunch Republican. The powerful growth in our economy has allowed us to smite the evil empire, come close to a balanced budget, provide technological change beyond our imagination, assist in neglected urban-renewal problems, and now offer the opportunity for the working poor of this country to prosper and grow through jobs and education.

This is all threatened by Greenspan & Co. bickering over where and when inflation will rear its ugly head. The constant obsession with daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly statistical indexes and what they portend for inflation and the accompanying Fed response is tiring and destructive. Yes, for the next five years, we can plan on price pressures in the marketplace. We can also count on a clear warning and sufficient time to control such pressure so that it will not be disruptive as in the past.

I suggest that Fed policy for the next 6 to 12 months be fixed so as to allow the markets to work. This is an unprecedented time. Micromanagement by the Fed is unnecessary and may ruin our best chance for economic growth that includes the poor and the world.

Bruce Mangione
Reading, Pa.

Medical-Savings Plans: Still Works in Progress

''The nasty side effects of medical-savings accounts'' (News: Analysis & Commentary, Oct. 25) misrepresents how MSAs work. The majority of MSA funding comes from the savings realized by purchasing high-deductible instead of low-deductible insurance, not from out-of-pocket expense. Similar innovative plans devised by individual companies have shown that people with MSA-type plans use more preventive care because judicious preventive medicine saves money. Congress and the President should lift the restrictions and expand MSAs. We'll find out what works. The managed-care industry and the medical socialists are justifiably afraid of the answer.

Robert F. Hamilton M.D.
Godfrey, Ill.


Howard Gleckman tells us that there are ''few takers'' of medical-savings accounts, but it may be that the accounts are simply not available to those of us most interested in them. In Massachusetts, for instance, we found staffers at Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office unhelpful when we asked for information about MSAs. The office of the state insurance commissioner was hardly better, but it did give us an 800 number to call. The people at the other end of the 800 number--apparently part of the Health Care Financing Administration, a federal program--were polite but clueless about how we might set one up in Massachusetts.

We finally concluded that there was only one major insurer involved in MSAs and that that company did not do business in our state. It is no wonder why MSAs have been so unsuccessful. If you can't even participate, what's the point of the ''experiment'' in the first place?

David Grayson Allen
Concord, Mass.

A Greenhouse Solution That's Worse Than the Problem?

Gary Becker's ''What price pollution? Leave that to a global market'' (Economic Viewpoint, Oct. 18) was on target in spelling out the weak and ambiguous evidence on global warming. However, his proposed solution to help developing nations reduce greenhouse emissions only hinted at some of the serious problems posed by economists' favorite solution: tradable permits.

Trading permits is really about wealth, or wealth transfer. Depending on assumptions, you can easily put the annual world market value of the permits in the $200 billion to $1 trillion range. Either auctioning or allocating those permits among and within countries would cause great political distress.

Further, an emissions-trading system could have the unintended consequence of increasing deforestation and therefore greenhouse emissions. That's because trading could drive up the price of fossil fuels, leaving wood as the energy source of choice in the developing world. Finally, Becker's observation that ''enforcement of compliance is a challenge'' shows a mastery of subtle understatement. It's time to scrap the discredited Kyoto Protocol and move on to credible policies on greenhouse emissions that won't damage our own economy or those in the developing world.

Russell Jones
American Petroleum Institute
Washington

Laptops in the Schools in Rural Virginia

''A small town reveals America's digital divide,'' (Letter from Blacksburg, Va., Internet Age, Cover Story, Oct. 4) seemed to downgrade the most important development of an area taking advantage of what the World Wide Web offers us by highlighting what a few are not getting out of it--primarily by not going after it. Computer use and Internet service is available if you want to get up off your chair and go after it.

If you want a story on what is being done to equip tomorrow's citizens for using computers and the Internet, come on down to Henry County, where this year many grades have laptops to use in school and at home, a program we plan to continue until all students from 4th to 12th grades have them.

Harry L. Daughtry
Martinsville, Va.

''Spotting 'Style Creep''' (BusinessWeek Investor, Nov. 1)

In ''Spotting 'Style Creep''' (BusinessWeek Investor, Nov. 1), the Web address for BUSINESS WEEK's mutual-fund scoreboard should have been www.businessweek.com/investor/frame/mutual.htm.

''Using the Net to soup up your palm top computer'' (BusinessWeek Lifestyle, Nov. 8)

In ''Using the Net to soup up your Palm Top computer'' (BusinessWeek Lifestyle, Nov. 8), the address for the Pilot Zone changed after the story appeared. It is now netsurf.pdacentral.com/pilotzone/.

''A treasure trove in antique maps'' (BusinessWeek Investor, Nov. 8, in some editions)

In ''A treasure trove in antique maps'' (Business Week Investor, Nov. 8, in some editions), the Web address for the Library of Congress map division should have been lcweb.loc.gov/rr/geogmap. The address for Map Societies: www.csuohio.edu/CUT/MapSoc/geo_indx2.htm.

The BUSINESS WEEK Best-Seller List (Nov. 8)

The BUSINESS WEEK Best-Seller List (Nov. 8) should have said that it was based on sales data from September, not October.