David Cay Johnston: Comcast's Costly Package

February 19, 2014  |  If you’re wondering why ordinary Americans aren’t even close to achieving economic prosperity nearly five years after the official end of the Great Recession, you should pay close attention to the proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable by Comcast.

 

The deal, which was announced [4] last week, would create a monopolistic behemoth, reducing competition in the telecommunications sector and granting the consolidated companies more power to simultaneously raise prices and depress wages. It would reduce the number of jobs on the market, weaken smaller businesses and restrain the deployment of technology — especially the high-speed Internet access that’s necessary to support economic growth in this digital age.