Antitrust cases are most likely to be invoked when prices are falling and consumers are benefiting, rather than in instances where monopolists are abusing their market power. High-tech companies can look at the history of the transportation industry for insight into the choices they face. The railroad industry took the path of heavy-handed regulation, which created a legacy of inefficiency and bankruptcy that continues to the current day. In sharp contrast is the automobile industry, which was subjected to relatively light regulation. Today that industry is characterized by innovation, growth, and responsiveness to consumers.
Antitrust laws ought to be revised or repealed entirely.
The Microsoft persecution is not an isolated case of prosecutorial excess. It is the flagship case of antitrust at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division loudly promises that the Microsoft case is the vanguard of many more Digital Economy cases to follow. The consequences for information technology companies and all the companies that rely on them would be dire indeed. If the Microsoft case is the best the Antitrust Division has to offer America, then there is no reason to keep the Sherman Act.