Opinion: Holman Jenkins Takes on Sprint and the Japanese Tax Hike

8/15/2014 1:56PM

Business World Columnist Holman Jenkins Jr. on why Sprint has abandoned its pursuit of T-Mobile and how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to raise the consumption tax has caused Japan’s economy to contract. Photo credits: Getty Images and Associated Press.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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I ... the ... thus the first in protecting it from wireless telecom mergers but up early this maybe you don't get the service you were hoping for it sells about as are calmness or Business World Columnist Holman Jenkins home and thanks for joining us ... today ... so the of the little stuff from Washington ... is so even before a ... spring thaw of made a formal offer to buy the T Mobile the ... regulators made clear that deal would not ... pass so anti trust muster would not be approved to ... in Washington ... what does this mean for consumers because a that whenever these deals are broken up by regulators the argument is always that they're protecting us from my usually from ... price gouging or some law potential harm ... from a consolidation in the industry what is going to be the consumer in fact in this case ... you know the thing you can really connect the problem is that regulators are looking at the market as it exists now remains is the need for a national wireless carriers ... have to competition what we really have is that is to marry be a national networks and Verizon ... in eighteen eighteen and two small players that ... they are bottom feeders scrapping for people who ... go to the lowest possible rate ... a ... team ... for our Japanese and after a couple years ago who came here with the idea that he has to convince regulators that they were wrong ... when you really need you to get a Number three and Number four for they have ... enough market power and strength and ability to raise capital to take on numbers one and two ... it was the new ... president that somebody sit ... to write a regular newsletter and diplomatically sincerely trying to convince them that he had a ... clear view of the future he stopped and turned which ... wireless and wired become increasingly a ... INTC marquee everywhere you go you get connectivity whether it's ... my lifeline letters by cellular tower don't really ... know or care undermining ... lots of different suppliers in the DirecTV satellite broadcaster rainy New this ... can be contacted via traditional wireless copies of the government's market conditions were to make sense in the future ... he made an argument with an art in any doubt Miller has written to change their minds in response to arguments only in response to events in world ok the good point here about how it's not for national wireless carriers is actually much more than that of the growth of why Fi many more options for the consumer and that ... obviously because the regulators with that I've I've done this deal were not Guinea get to run the counter experiment were not feel that from the free market experiment but what do you think we would have seen ... if ... Sprint and T Mobile have been allowed to combine ... you have seen ... their very large becoming change the whole pricing structure for the high quality network suppliers eighteen T and Verizon would imply competition ... in more partly would have gotten a better network service and increasing the integration ... of the kinds of services you want my home and and wireless phone yes I know you will start buying packages of that exceeded some reason knowing everywhere are a few ... falling on your phone on your on your Kindle or on your I pad where the ... we're going there any way I think they just delayed the progress ... ok now us thinking of Abbasi Ashley selling the Japanese billionaire who bought spring ... there's a ... serious pose that maybe he's ... come here to invest because it's not seeing a lot of ... engaging compelling opportunities in his home country of Japan ... awful them that looking now and Japan ... you when you might've thought there was some sort of a ... natural disaster looking at the way the ... Japanese economy plunged last quarter out what happened what the ... what the ... huge negative force impact of the Japanese economy ... yet on the National disaster loses a large increase in out in sales taxes consumption taxes to a Japanese ... consumer whole idea was this was ... the restore faith in the long-term donated to the government ... to surge this huge monumental and hair all day ... or is it because of the economy to shrink to grow ... it defeats the whole earth mastery are lifted and ... then all the economists out there who've been saying for years that Japan is basically a bar in search of a windshield and a slide on ... and with his massive debt that the ... second economy with a shrinking population with no integration with the ... you know everyone getting all around dollar it seems like it's inevitable that some of ... the things that go bust ... but as far as the question of ... it's a bit manage to hold it together this line it's a it's difficult to live ... to ... to time these things The guests but does ... we see in Japan and I think he pointed out to a lesser extent in Europe ... since the financial crisis these countries have been able to muddle along with ... a very high levels of debt ... that easy credit ... why can it continue a bit longer against a big question for some ... he then you can feel like you're exactly right you know can go on forever you know and ... and in the meantime even when he's terribly low interest rates people wanna buy the bonds of the government's ... because they're safe havens in that in a dangerous world because ... you can rely on the ... the central bank's least create enough money to make sure you get your money back even if it's not worth as much as the ... others on the site was holding things together in fact interest rates are extraordinarily low in your ... and in Japan despite their enormous to last no Japanese the industry's return something resembling normal ... Murphy won her center right government revenue detainees on the debt to be nothing left for anything ... however is a sustainable situation long-term the snake but right now investors are so far ... ok unless they ... were talking about sort of ... inevitability is a ... painful reckoning for these places but what about the upside is there ... is there are reform opportunity here in Japan certainly a ... when the Prime Minister Ave came into office that was a part of this is ... his economic plan one of the arrows that he was going to the firing him as the Darrell been fired anywhere are you seeing any ... overshooting Agassi shooting their ... business ... is that we seen a driver's is there any hope for progress on a more open markets less regulation the kind of the ... reforms that would induce growth ... you know he's been a few little progress is actually on on literary elation when he made enough to make a difference when they really do ... is get many were four which means changing cultural habits and online masted integration so you have a growing population there were a growing economy in growing revenues is or is that Japan's ... anywhere near anything revolutionary ... in fact similar Proms are going on in your well rested on the labor market reforms ... and tax refunds that they refuse to take that can already get there on the Strine economy things ... that and probably a little the last to ... urgently ... ok our goodbyes home and will hope that they take it that thanks for joining us today