All Posts Tagged With: "antitrust"
Forked-Tongued Washington Government
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first federal statute to limit cartels and monopolies and still forms the basis for most antitrust litigation by the Department of Justice. The Act contains two important provisions. Section 1 outlaws contracts and conspiracies in restraint of trade. Section 2 prohibits monopolization and attempts to monopolize. Most [...]
24Aug2011 | Walter E. Williams | 3 comments | ContinuedWorld War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies
Journalist Ken Auletta’s book about the Microsoft antitrust case is not just another Microsoft-bashing diatribe. On the contrary, World War 3.0 is a remarkably evenhanded investigation of this infamous case, providing some good insights into the basis (or lack of it) of the now-nullified judicial order to break Microsoft into two companies. Unfortunately, the book [...]
30Jun2010 | Barbara R. Hunter | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – October 2008
Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism by Jörg Guido Hülsmann Ludwig von Mises Institute • 2007 • 1143 pages • $50.00 Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves Biographer Guido Hülsmann has written a magnificent book, describing in detail not only the life of Ludwig von Mises, but also his writings, his intellectual development, and his importance. [...]
1Oct2008 | George C. Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedPutting a Bureaucrat in Your Tank: Gasoline Markets and Regulation
If you run a barrel of crude oil through a still, the technique used by the earliest refineries and still a stage in modern refining, it separates into various fractions, including kerosene, gasoline, diesel, fuel oils, waxes, and asphalt. Without further processing, about 10 percent will be “straight run” gasoline. In the 1870s this 10 [...]
1Oct2007 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | ContinuedPostal Monopoly: Playing by Different Rules
Once again the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is seeking to use its monopoly power to defy the economic law of demand. On April 8 the USPS requested an increase in the first-class letter rate from 37 to 39 cents, a 5.4 percent jump. Between 2000 and 2004, the price of first-class postage increased 12.1 percent, [...]
1Jul2005 | Robert Carreira | 1 comment | ContinuedAntitrust After Microsoft: The Obsolescence of Antitrust in the Digital Era
What’s in a name? Even the simple title, Antitrust After Microsoft, suggests a question: Will there ever be an after Microsoft? Federal antitrust agencies have investigated and prosecuted Microsoft since 1990. The resolution of the federal suit, the focus of the author’s attention, will not lay to rest the actions it encouraged, as entities including [...]
1Oct2002 | Laura Bennett Peterson | 0 comments | ContinuedTed Koppel Needs Antitrust Protection?
William Safire prefers hard news to jokes on late-night television–and he is willing to roll out the coercive power of the federal antitrust police to impose his preferences on American TV viewers and stockholders of telecommunications firms. Generally the grumblers and malcontents who object to the outcomes of the free market typically do so on [...]
1Aug2002 | Joseph T. Salerno | 0 comments | ContinuedRebel Code: Inside Linux and the Open Source Revolution
Perseus Publishing • 2001 • 334 pages • $27.50 Reviewed by Andrew Morriss During the Microsoft antitrust trial a great deal of ink was spilled in the press over Microsoft’s alleged monopolization of various markets and its practices in marketing both its browser (Internet Explorer) and its operating systems (such as Windows 2000). Although Judge [...]
1May2002 | Glyn Moody | 0 comments | ContinuedMonopolies in America: Empire Builders and Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates by Charles R. Geisst
Oxford University Press • 2000 • 355 pages • $30.00 The current Microsoft court case, hotly debated and full of economic implications, makes a historical study of monopolies and antitrust law very relevant. Unfortunately, business historian Charles Geisst’s Monopolies in America is incomplete and one-sided, mostly reiterating the traditional statist interpretation of big business and [...]
1Apr2001 | Burton W. Folsom Jr. | 0 comments | ContinuedTiger-nomics: Glorious Competition
The ever-mounting accomplishments in the short professional golf career of Tiger Woods are nothing less than historic. In fact, Woods’s mastery of golf offers lessons for duffers and PGA Tour pros alike. But his feats also serve as stunning reminders about the importance of competition not only on the golf course, but also in everyday [...]
1Feb2001 | Raymond J. Keating | 20 comments | ContinuedThe Philosophical Influence Behind the Microsoft Trial
Barbara Hunter is an advanced level computer support specialist at a large law firm. “. . . trial moves rapidly on when the judge has determined the sentence beforehand.” —spoken by Malvoisin in Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe It may seem that the Microsoft antitrust trial was anything but rapid, but a closer examination reveals a [...]
1Oct2000 | Barbara R. Hunter | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Butter Monopoly?
Can butter lovers in the greater Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas spread a little easier knowing that the federal government is looking out for them? Antitrust regulators are on guard against the tiniest of price increases that might result from a proposed merger in the butter industry. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) [...]
1Aug2000 | Raymond J. Keating | 2 comments | ContinuedMerger Policy Fails Hi-Tech Test
Henry Demmert is associate dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. A true story: In the early 1980s I worked as an economist in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. In my first assignment I was paired with one of the division’s experienced lawyers to evaluate a merger between [...]
1Jun2000 | Henry Demmert | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Microsoft Case: Divestiture Won’t Help Consumers
D. T. Armentano is professor emeritus in economics at the University of Hartford and author of Antitrust and Monopoly (Independent Institute) and Antitrust: The Case for Repeal (Mises Institute). Critics of Microsoft, rallied by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s finding that the company has monopoly power over much of the computer industry, have urged a breakup [...]
1Apr2000 | D. T. Armentano | 0 comments | ContinuedBarbarians at Bill Gates
William Shughart is the Frederick A. P. Barnard Distinguished Professor of Economics and holder of the Robert M. Hearin Chair in Business Administration at the University of Mississippi. It was a glorious fall day on the East Coast when Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Joel Klein stepped up to the microphone at a news conference [...]
1Apr2000 | William F. Shughart II | 0 comments | ContinuedAntitrust Protects Competition?
Conservative William Safire’s column “The Curse of Bigness” (New York Times, December 13, 1999) is dedicated to “exploding myths” allegedly spread by MCI, WorldCom, Sprint, and other large firms seeking government approval for prospective mergers that will serve to magnify their market power. Satire opens innocuously enough with the comfortable platitude that “Competition is the [...]
1Apr2000 | Joseph T. Salerno | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Irresistible Force of Market Competition
This is the third in a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics. The first article is here, the second is here, and the final article is here. The systematic character of the market process derives, in the Austrian view, from the interplay of the actions of entrepreneurial human beings. [...]
1Mar2000 | Israel M. Kirzner | 6 comments | Continued-
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