The Case Against Antitrust

Competition is an essential ingredient of capitalism. Accordingly, when a corporation appears to have acquired sufficient market dominance to discourage competitors, it's tempting to ask the government to remedy the problem by enforcing antitrust laws. That temptation should be resisted, except to redress monopoly power that the government itself has created. I've published several variations on this critique--mostly in connection with the antitrust case against Microsoft during the so- called browser wars. Today, the critique bears repeating, as the Justice Department pursues its ill- advised crusade against Apple--for the benefit of competitors at the expense of consumers. Without constant vigilance by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, so the argument goes, large corporations would ruthlessly destroy their smaller rivals and raise prices and profits at consumers' expense. When mega- companies grab market share, the need for vigorous antitrust enforcement seems obvious. And yet, there's a dark side to antitrust. The laws, in the words of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, are a "jumble of economic irrationality and ignorance."