Maybe History Can Provide Useful Perspective

Just like “every generation throws a hero up the pop charts,” every several years a company or two comes along and seems unassailable but, eventually, isn’t. (Forget GM and A&P – I have trouble convincing my students reading the U.S. and EU Microsoft cases from 20 years ago that those cases were a big deal.) Those proposing new types of antitrust enforcement or laws to deal with this generation’s giants should answer these questions: Why is this time different? Why are you so confident that this new type of government intervention will produce better results than a market policed by antitrust enforcement?