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1.Verizon and Google Propose Rules of the Road for the Internet
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Last week, Verizon and Google proposed a plan they say could keep the Internet open while supporting investment in high-speed Internet service.
Verizon has the nation's biggest wireless network while Google is the biggest Internet search engine. The proposal was a surprise because the two companies have been on opposite sides of the debate over net neutrality.
That is the idea that all content on the Web should be treated equally.
Internet service providers want to be able to charge more for heavy Internet traffic or users who want special services. The Federal Communications Commission regulates telephone, cable and satellite communications. But its power to regulate Internet service has been questioned in the courts.
The new proposal calls for rules barring service providers from preventing users from sending and receiving legal information of any kind. Users also could not be prevented from linking any application, service or device they choose to the Web.
And broadband Internet providers would be barred from discriminating against content and would have to be open about their policies.
Supporters of net neutrality criticized the proposal for not including wireless providers. Wireless broadband is among the fastest growing parts of the Internet.
Others oppose the creation of a "two-tiered" system on the Internet in which some content gets a fast lane and other content goes slowly.But Daniel Brenner says such a system already exists.
DANIEL BRENNER: "In some ways there are two tiers today. In other words, there's the public Internet which we all use for Web surfing, e-mail and sometimes for voice. And then there are managed networks."
Daniel Brenner is a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells in Washington. He says service providers want to be able to charge more because they build networks out to their customers across the country. Such companies are the so-called "last mile" providers.
But, the Internet is really a network of networks which exchange traffic all the time and compete with each other. And not all networks reach the last mile to a customer's door.
Paul Kouroupas of Global Crossing says his company wants to make sure agreements between service providers are honored on all networks. That way, a service promised by Global Crossing on its fiber optic network will be extended all the way to a customer's door — even if another company carries the service that last mile.
The Verizon-Google proposal offers suggestions for a debate that is not likely to end soon. Daniel Brenner says the FCC needs clearer guidelines from Congress. And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
2.The Rise and Fall of Mark Hurd as H-P Chief
Mark Hurd got credit for building Hewlett-Packard into the world's largest technology company. H-P is the top seller of personal computers and printers. It had sales last year of almost one hundred fifteen billion dollars.
Mr. Hurd became chief executive officer five years ago after H-P ousted Carly Fiorina. Later he also became chairman. Under his leadership H-P stock doubled in price.
So the news out of Palo Alto, California, last Friday came to many as a shock. Mark Hurd was out.
Investigators said he had falsified expense records to hide spending on a woman who worked with H-P. Reports said the amount was about twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Hurd is married. He earned twenty-four million dollars last year.
In June the former marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher, accused Mr. Hurd of sexual harassment. Through her lawyer, she said she was "surprised and saddened" that he lost his job. She said they had settled her claim privately. The sometime actress also said they never had an "intimate sexual relationship."
File photo of Mark Hurd
H-P and private investigators found no violation of the sexual harassment policy at the company. But they did find that Mr. Hurd violated H-P's Standards of Business Conduct. These suggest that before employees make a decision, they should "consider how it would look in a news story."
Sexual harassment is one of the areas of job discrimination investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The federal agency received almost thirteen thousand harassment claims last year. That was down from over fifteen thousand ten years ago. Men now make close to one-fifth of the complaints. The agency finds reasonable cause in about half of all sexual harassment claims.
H-P is paying Mark Hurd twelve million dollars plus millions more in stock options to leave. But his resignation was not the only exit from a job that was in the news this week.
A flight attendant became an overnight folk hero on the Internet.
Steven Slater apparently argued with a passenger over baggage in the overhead bin and got hit on the head. Once the flight landed in New York he deployed the emergency slide and left the plane.
Soon there was a new expression: to "hit the slide," to leave a job in a memorable way. But Steven Slater is in a lot of legal trouble and details of exactly what happened on that JetBlue flight and how he acted are still up in the air.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.
3.Financial Reform Law Aims to Change Some Ways of Wall Street
On Wednesday, President Obama signed into law the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
BARACK OBAMA: "These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history -- in history."
Together, the changes represent the biggest rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression. At the heart of the two thousand three hundred pages in the bill are promises to protect average Americans.
Congress agreed to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But the Federal Reserve will pay for it. The central bank will budget about five hundred million dollars a year.
Travis Plunkett is legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer rights group. He says this new independent office will have a lot of responsibility -- and that is a good thing.
TRAVIS PLUNKETT: "We're going to have one federal consumer financial protection bureau. If it succeeds, people will know it. If it fails, people will know it. And they will try to hold it accountable."
The bureau will set rules for the marketplace and enforce existing laws. One goal is to keep home buyers from getting bigger loans than they can pay for. But two areas where the bureau will not have power is over auto lenders or banks with assets of less than ten billion dollars.
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