Antitrust law has been around for over a century in the United States. On a broad level, everyone seems to know the purpose of antitrust law: to stop big companies from being too powerful. However, on a more specific level, no one seems to know how to enforce it. Well, that’s not quite correct either. Everyone seems to
These just look like shakedowns to me. The Clinton Foundation gets a half billion donation from Microsoft competitors, the Clinton Justice Department sues Microsoft for monopoly, Microsoft goes from giving about 10K$ political donations per year to opening a billion-dollar lobbying office in DC.
Granted, if politicians never shook down business, business would shake down politicians.
When the original antitrust laws were being written, economics had not really worked out all our pretty little graphs. So there was an inherent vagueness to it all. What is clear is the original intent of the law was to protect consumers and producers. Or to put it better, there was a recognition that people are both consumers and producers. Today’s antitrust law only focuses on people as consumers. It has a general guidance that if prices are lower, then higher market concentration is OK. There is no concern about lower competition meaning lower opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I think that is what has been lost in today’s practice, or lack there of, of antitrust.
These just look like shakedowns to me. The Clinton Foundation gets a half billion donation from Microsoft competitors, the Clinton Justice Department sues Microsoft for monopoly, Microsoft goes from giving about 10K$ political donations per year to opening a billion-dollar lobbying office in DC.
Granted, if politicians never shook down business, business would shake down politicians.
When the original antitrust laws were being written, economics had not really worked out all our pretty little graphs. So there was an inherent vagueness to it all. What is clear is the original intent of the law was to protect consumers and producers. Or to put it better, there was a recognition that people are both consumers and producers. Today’s antitrust law only focuses on people as consumers. It has a general guidance that if prices are lower, then higher market concentration is OK. There is no concern about lower competition meaning lower opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. I think that is what has been lost in today’s practice, or lack there of, of antitrust.