And, of course, mandatory psychiatric treatment for anyone who utters a word about Silicon Valley. Believe me, they are out there aging sourly in all the old Soviet republics, the last of the Soviet elites, grumbling about Gorbachev's errors, convinced that the Marxist path was a better way. Their days are filled with gloom unless by chance they can get a report, perhaps on Radio Liberty, of the latest assault on capitalism by the United States Justice Department led by Comrades Reno and Klein.
History moves in curious ways.
Since the early 1980s capitalism has brought havoc to the aging Soviets' once orderly world. Now from the unlikely locale of Washington there is hope that the bloom may be off the capitalist springtime. In one day in early April one government ruling against Microsoft set off two of the most volatile days in the history of the stock market. That is good news for those made dizzy by all the economic growth of recent years. Its armies of lawyers, public relations specialists, regulators, and snoops can come down on any business, smear it, and embroil it in years of distracting court cases.