While gloomy Adam despairs over his FCBA Directory and the political economy implications of the FCBA's burgeoning membership, I say "take cheer, lament not this profusion of 'economists, sophists and calculators;' but celebrate that such a vibrant, dynamic, and transforming sector of the economy sails swiftly on despite all of the regulatory barnacles attached to the hull."

Goodness me, I am beginning to sound like the Panglossian libertarian now, and he is the sober conservative with a clear-eyed view of mankind's constraints. Maybe I'll reread the universal service portions of the Stevens-Inouye staff draft to recover my pessimism.