The real news from this week’s Business Week isn’t the cover story on Google’s increasing hegemony across the web. It’s the more immediate concern that weak capital spending may upend the economy.

Look at the facts:

• Orders for capital goods fell 1.2 percent in February, the fourth decline in capital spending over the past five months.

• The 4.4 percent growth rate in equipment outlays in 2006 is the smallest increase in three years.

• The subprime loan hemorrhage and spike in the price of oil have hammered investor confidence to its lowest level in six months, according to a UBS survey. This is key because prospects for demand, which have slowed and show no signs of a pick-up, drive capital outlays.

Congress and maybe a few bloggers might want to consider this as they advocate for neutrality regulations. Take the Dorgan-Snowe bill which gives the FCC six months to write rules that will legally bind Internet carriers. Given the inevitable lobbying, litigation and the impact of new technology on static regulation, there’s a greater likelihood of Sanjaya joining the Mormon Tabernacle Choir than this getting done in only six months.

Telecom investment is a bright spot in the otherwise dismal capital spending economy. But a regulatory fiat that interferes with America’s network build-out — like six months of legal limbo — is an economic Russian roulette.