Hmm...now the Federal government, in the form of the FCC, is trying to get to the bottom of this soon-to-be (if not already) Apple iPhone App Store/Google Voice/AT&T debacle. As of now, AT&T says that it is not responsible for the operations of Apple's App Store. Things the make you go hmm...

I hope that the end result of this episode involves a balance of freer and fairer markets, at least in the realm of wireless communication (if not everywhere else, too). If the Federal government plays this slightly trivial issue (relatively speaking...) right, then it is well on its way to show how it can affect markets for the better. That's one of the biggest issues in today's world of politics, especially American politics, and especially in relation to economics: How much should the Federal government affect the marketplace? This goes for not only wireless communication but also automobiles and health insurance, and markets beyond and in between, whether interstate or even international (but globalism is another issue for another time).

The U.S. “should make the Chinese feel confident that the value of the assets at least will not be eroded in a significant way,” Yu, who now heads the World Economics and Politics Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in response to e-mailed questions yesterday from Beijing.