Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 12:08:13 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: Mises Institute Reaction to Microsoft Ruling To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
From: "Mises Institute News" <news@mises.org> Subject: Reaction to Microsoft Ruling Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 09:47:56 -0500
Dominick T. Armentano, Mises Institute adjunct scholar and author of "Antitrust: The Case for Repeal," has the following reaction to the Microsoft ruling:
"The ruling by Judge Jackson is obscene but not unexpectd. Microsoft has been losing this case almost from day one. (Why the markets reacted so sharply to an all but forgone outcome requires an explanation.) Their defense at trial was weak and unconvincing; yet given the nature of antitrust law, no rational defense was really possible.
"What disturbs me most is that the bulk of the anti-antitrust arguments and evidence developed over the last 30 years was, for the most part, ignored. Indeed, reading Judge Jackson's decision is like being in an antitrust time warp. Has anyone but me noticed the many references to Areeda and Turner in the decison? Amazing nostalgia.
"Yet it illustrates the absolute power of statist ideas that develop in the establishment academy. Microsoft's decision to fight on may make little business sense but I welcome it. If any firm is financially and temperamentally suited to challenge this antitrust nonsense, it's Microsoft. They did extremely well on appeal in 1998 on similar (but more narrow) issues. Unfortunately this time there is a huge so-called 'finding of fact' staring them (and any appellate court) in the face. That presumption will be very difficult to overcome."
For more on the Microsoft Ruling, see the headline today on http://www.mises.org/
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