The Justice Department s wild-goose chase. By Alan Reynolds Mr. Reynolds is Director of Economic Research at the Hudson Institute, and senior editor of the Institute s quarterly, American Outlook. That delay will soon prove to be a serious tactical blunder.
Some complications are inherent in mixing old antitrust with the new economy.
The most obvious dilemma is that legal proceedings grind on very slowly while technology changes at Internet speed. Suppose the Judge goes along with Joel Klein and the software lobby and proposes breaking Microsoft into three or four separate pieces. After Judge Jackson formally charges Microsoft with some assortment of specific offenses, such explicit charges are almost certain to look quaintly moot within two years. Another complication is that antitrust prosecutors are obviously baffled by technology, which makes them dangerously dependent on lobbyists disguised as experts. Nokia and Sony plan to make their phones smarter with the Palm operating system, which also powers PDAs from IBM and Handspring.