To: nommedeguerre who wrote (18850 ) 5/1/1998 1:32:00 AM From: Gerald R. Lampton Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Bork pontificates on Antitrust:slate.com The American economy is remarkably resilient and adaptive, and these days it reacts with positively breathtaking speed to profit-making opportunities. If, in some geographic or product segment somewhere, there is a lack of competition, that circumstance will not last long. Competition will probably appear in less time than it takes the government to prepare and litigate a case. except Microsoft's, right Bob? There is a chasm between the effects on competition of monopolies and of two-firm markets (duopolies). That is evident everywhere in the real world as opposed to mathematical theories of oligopoly or duopoly behavior. In the United Shoe Machinery case, for example, United's profits were far higher where it was the sole supplier than in markets where it faced even one smaller competitor. In complex products such as military hardware the situation is far too complicated and constantly changing to permit managements to restrain competition without overt collusion. is the hobgobblin of small minds, but does that mean that we can all breathe easier due to the fact that Microsoft, as you say, "face[s] even one smaller competitor" in the form of, say, Linux or IBM or maybe even Apple, in the OS market? Microsoft's attempt to purchase Intuit, which offers the leading money management software, is probably too close to the matter in which I am engaged for me to comment. Except, perhaps, to note that Microsoft has closer to 95 percent, rather than the 80 percent you mention, of operating system software for personal computers. I am not sure, in any event, that this would have been only a vertical merger. Microsoft has considerable influence or control (whichever way you want to put it) in applications software. The proper remedy for the government's antitrust enforcers is a large dose of Valium.
