Real estate developers have good reason to feel cannibalized when they attempt to develop something today.Building permits for their projects are often exceedingly difficult to secure, requiring thousands of dollars in architect's and attorney's fees, and months (if...
MARKETS
Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. – AYN RAND
Abolish Antitrust!
Good afternoon.I want to address four issues regarding anti-trust as they apply to the Microsoft case.Anti-trust Paralyzes the Thinking ProcessIn my research on the traits of great wealth creators (The Prime Movers: Traits of The Great Wealth Creators), I identified...
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Definition Unnecessary
The antitrust laws and their enforcement are every bit as arbitrary as the "perfect competition" doctrine. Consider only those provisions relating to price setting. If a business sets a price above the prices of its rivals, it can be charged with "intent to...
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: ‘Perfect Competition’
Antitrust law relies heavily on flawed economic theory--particularly its theory of competition. It's a view held explicitly or implicitly by most economists, politicians, and journalists. It's been taught for decades in the universities. Unfortunately, it's also a...
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Economic Power vs Political Power
From the time great business leaders were first maligned as "Robber Barons," socialists have tried to obscure the difference between economic power and political power. They've insisted, against all evidence, that productive giants such as Andrew Carnegie, John D....
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Preface
Most of you will recall the scandal during the winter Olympics a few years back, when disgruntled skating competitor Tanya Harding hired a thug to take a pipe to the shins of Nancy Kerrigan. Harding was envious of Kerrigan's superior ability and tried to cripple her...
Orrin Hatch reveals how antitrust laws are tools for power lusters
In a recent speech to businessmen at a technology industry conference, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a long-time proponent of breaking up Microsoft, stated that he supported "strict enforcement of antitrust laws" because they are "essential to the health of the economy...
Greenspan, Interest Rates & Inflation
What do low interest rates have to do with causing the government to inflate the money supply?The link between Fed-manipulated interest rates and the money supply is a direct, causal one. The interest rate in question is the 'Fed Funds rate'. This is the rate that...
Assault Microsoft, Assault the NASDAQ
Earlier this month US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his "conclusions of law" in the Microsoft antitrust case. BAM! Nearly $90 billion in value was destroyed--at Microsoft alone. The firm's stock plunged 14%. The broader NASDAQ index fell...
Break Up Microsoft?
The consumers of computer software need the freedom of Bill Gates and Microsoft to produce and innovate in any branch of computer software they choose.
Microsoft Breakup Is a Throwback to Socialism
Only a month ago, the Justice Department filed its motion that the Microsoft Corporation be broken into pieces as a "remedy" under the antitrust laws. The government wants to split the company into two pieces, one to make the Windows operating system, the other to...
The Microsoft Case: Divestiture Won’t Help Consumers
Trust-Busters and Courts Don’t Know How to Maximize Shareholder Return Better Than Private Entrepreneurs 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 […]
Striking Janitors: Virtual Slaves?
Strikers must, however, recognize that employers possess options as well. An employer may refuse the pay hike, lock the workers out, and/or seek replacement workers.
The Interstate Highway System and the Disfiguring of America, A Tale of Two Kinds of Cities: Part 5
The interstates were never the result of some individualistic, egoistic ‘love of the private automobile’, but rather of anti-capitalist, mixed-economy politics straight-up: the initiation of physical force for the sake of the greatest good for the greatest pressure group.
Slums: The Legacy of “Urban Renewal”: Tale of Two Kinds of Cities , Part 4
Urban Renewal disfigured cities because of the introduction of eminent domain into the land development process.
Bill Gates Failed to Make a Moral Self-Defense
Locke said that the only way Gates can fight government prosecutors is for the Microsoft founder to “assert proudly his right to his own existence — which means: the right to do business not as a public servant but as an individual with inalienable rights.”
Microsoft’s Real Sin: Sanction of the Victim
Like other antitrust targets, Microsoft, is guilty--of something. They're guilty of something terrible. They're guilty of believing they're guilty. They're guilty of believing they're evil. They're guilty of apologizing for they're success, for their sales, their...
The American KGB: The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Department (Part 6)
The antitrust laws are based on the economic theory of "pure and perfect competition" and deeper, on the ethical theory of altruism, or self-sacrificial service to others. What do the laws require? What illegal behavior do they cite? What punishments do they...
The Railroading of Microsoft
The press coverage of Microsoft's antitrust trial, up through the testimony of the final witness, has conveyed one consistent theme: Microsoft is losing. Its witnesses, we are told, have been caught in inconsistencies; Bill Gates's videotaped testimony was evasive;...
Government Cheating in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?
The government is using people’s efforts to minimize the harm they suffer from rising prices to conceal the existence of those rising prices.
An Update To “When Will the Bubble Burst?”
It May Be Bursting Now, and Faulty Economic Analysis Could Cost Investors Dearly
The Roots of the Microsoft Antitrust Case: An Analysis of Judge Jackson’s Finding of Fictions Part 4
The morality of altruism or self-sacrifice is often presented as a form of benevolence, as if it simply means being nice to other people. But the actual meaning of this philosophy is a hatred of success. Under this morality, anyone who achieves some extraordinary...
The Roots of the Microsoft Antitrust Case: An Analysis of Judge Jackson’s Finding of Fictions Part 3
Judge Jackson's visceral antagonism to business is also revealed by his condemnation of Microsoft for winning the browser battle against Netscape when "superior quality was not responsible for the dramatic rise [in] Internet Explorer's usage share." (Paragraph 375)...
The Roots of the Microsoft Antitrust Case: An Analysis of Judge Jackson’s Finding of Fictions – Part 2
Microsoft's achievements should be held up as a model of how to create and maintain a highly productive, innovative company. Yet Judge Jackson is unable to view any of these facts in a positive light. While Judge Jackson recognizes many of the concrete facts that...
The Roots of the Microsoft Antitrust Case: An Analysis of Judge Jackson’s Finding of Fiction – Part 1
United States District Court Judge Thomas P. Jackson is crystal clear in his recent "findings of fact": Microsoft is marked for destruction. But why does Judge Jackson want to punish one of the most successful corporations in American history? Because Bill Gates...
Why Americans Should Care About Antitrust: The Antitrust Assault on Microsoft Threatens Everyone’s Goals and Ambitions
The judge's "finding of fact" in the Microsoft antitrust trial has declared the company to be a dangerous monopoly, which will now be open to punishment by the courts--including everything from regulation to a complete breakup of the company. This ruling will have a...
Bill Gates continues to shoot himself in the foot
Judge Thomas Jackson’s decision against Microsoft is a travesty of justice.
What Does Competition Mean Under Capitalism?
Government should uphold and enforce market contracts–not violate freedom of contract by dictating the terms, changing the terms, or abrogating the terms of contracts
Here Comes Mickey Mao: Hong Kong’s new Mickey Mouse economics
Hong Kong's new government appears to be losing its inhibitions about contradicting market prices, favoring some industries over others, and using taxpayers' money to dispense windfall profits to those in favor. The deal recently signed with Disney to build a theme...
Clinton, the WTO, and Economics 101
What do the World Trade Organization protesters, President Clinton, and the Microsoft judge have in common? Answer: an almost appalling ignorance of Economics 101. The World Trade Organization, a consortium of 135 nations, met in Seattle to discuss ways to increase...
Judge Thomas Jackson’s Findings of Fiction in the Microsoft antitrust case
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has released his "findings of fact" in the Microsoft antitrust case. While his report did contain some correct information--such as the truism that a successful company tries to defeat its rivals--the central claims of his report are...
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Assault on Microsoft: Who is the Predator and Who is the Victim?
Microsoft did not gain its market share by having the government outlaw its competitors: Microsoft earned its position in the free-market as the result of freedom of competition. Microsoft is not a predator; Microsoft is the victim.
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