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Free the Market!: Why Only Government Can Keep the Marketplace Competitive
Why we need government intervention in the free market to protect competition and encourage innovation
Starting about thirty years ago, conservatives forced an overhaul of competition policy that has loosened business rules for everything from selling products to buying competitors.
Gary Reback thinks the changes have gone too far. Today's competition policies, he argues, were made for the old manufacturing economy of the 1970s. But in a high-tech world, these policies actually slow innovation, hurt consumers, and entrench big companies at the expense of entrepreneurs.
Free the Market! is both a memoir of Reback's titanic legal battles—involving top companies such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and AT&T—and a persuasive argument for measured government intervention in the free market to foster competition. Among the fascinating questions he
Starting about thirty years ago, conservatives forced an overhaul of competition policy that has loosened business rules for everything from selling products to buying competitors.
Gary Reback thinks the changes have gone too far. Today's competition policies, he argues, were made for the old manufacturing economy of the 1970s. But in a high-tech world, these policies actually slow innovation, hurt consumers, and entrench big companies at the expense of entrepreneurs.
Free the Market! is both a memoir of Reback's titanic legal battles—involving top companies such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and AT&T—and a persuasive argument for measured government intervention in the free market to foster competition. Among the fascinating questions he
432 pages, Hardcover
First published March 9, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 17, 2018
I picked this up to balance out the economics reading I've been doing lately, but it ended up being something rather different that was still interesting. It was more of a memoir than I expected, focused almost entirely on cases that the author took part in. Fortunately, it does focus on the important parts of those cases, not personal details, and tries to give meaningful context.
May 25, 2017
Lately I have enjoyed reading and mentally debating a number of the neo-Brandeisians arguing for a return to more stringent anti-trust regimen to deal with economic concentration. They really focus on the standard new economy FANG stocks like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google even though their best cases are for cable and phone companies.
I was hoping Reback's book would be in that vein, but alas it was not. Mostly due to it having been written before a lot of the FANG companies hit their stride and mostly because the book is more of memoir of Reback's time as an anti-trust lawyer. He consistently argues against the Chicago School approach to anti trust that arose in the 1970s and culminated with Robert Bork's "The Anti-Trust Paradox" and at times he does make good points that the UC approach can get too hung up on leaning on abstract econ models based on perfect knowledge, perfect competition and some naivete about business practices. However his own theory on anti-trust seems to be based on the novel theory of whoever is paying Gary Reback to take their case is right.
So his 1st case involved helping Apple Computer keep its prices in the early 80s high and avoid competition from discount dealers. Apple argued customers needed to pay up for in store demos and support, but by his own admission key parts of that brief were wildly dishonest and exaggerated the value of that support. Next he carries the flag of Netscape in its war with Microsoft in the 1990s. Now MSFT definitely made some moves that were textbook anti-trust violations, but the larger case that led to a 6 year fight with the US Justice Dept was based off the ultimately flawed idea that a browser could eventually replace the Windows OS and that by bundling IE into Windows MSFT could dominate any aspect of the internet they wanted to move into. Only that idea was kinda bollocks. Marc Andreessen started the whole browser replacing the OS meme and to this day with IE's market share back to where it was 20+ years ago no one is doing that. The list of MSFT internet ventures that got nowhere even after survived its fight with the Feds is huge: MSN--Dud! BING---really? Expedia---Zzzzz. MS Money--that still exist? Reback summarizes the MSFT chapter by noting in the years after the IE fight a number of new browsers came out, but he predicts MSFT browser market share will never waver....except now in 2017 IE's mkt share has plummeted to frigging 14%. Next he argues ORCL used its purchase of PSFT to dominate and monopolize biz databases and other services....hereto we see that ORCL is the 2nd place provider.
I will keep looking for that book that tackles new anti-trust theories cuz this aint it
I was hoping Reback's book would be in that vein, but alas it was not. Mostly due to it having been written before a lot of the FANG companies hit their stride and mostly because the book is more of memoir of Reback's time as an anti-trust lawyer. He consistently argues against the Chicago School approach to anti trust that arose in the 1970s and culminated with Robert Bork's "The Anti-Trust Paradox" and at times he does make good points that the UC approach can get too hung up on leaning on abstract econ models based on perfect knowledge, perfect competition and some naivete about business practices. However his own theory on anti-trust seems to be based on the novel theory of whoever is paying Gary Reback to take their case is right.
So his 1st case involved helping Apple Computer keep its prices in the early 80s high and avoid competition from discount dealers. Apple argued customers needed to pay up for in store demos and support, but by his own admission key parts of that brief were wildly dishonest and exaggerated the value of that support. Next he carries the flag of Netscape in its war with Microsoft in the 1990s. Now MSFT definitely made some moves that were textbook anti-trust violations, but the larger case that led to a 6 year fight with the US Justice Dept was based off the ultimately flawed idea that a browser could eventually replace the Windows OS and that by bundling IE into Windows MSFT could dominate any aspect of the internet they wanted to move into. Only that idea was kinda bollocks. Marc Andreessen started the whole browser replacing the OS meme and to this day with IE's market share back to where it was 20+ years ago no one is doing that. The list of MSFT internet ventures that got nowhere even after survived its fight with the Feds is huge: MSN--Dud! BING---really? Expedia---Zzzzz. MS Money--that still exist? Reback summarizes the MSFT chapter by noting in the years after the IE fight a number of new browsers came out, but he predicts MSFT browser market share will never waver....except now in 2017 IE's mkt share has plummeted to frigging 14%. Next he argues ORCL used its purchase of PSFT to dominate and monopolize biz databases and other services....hereto we see that ORCL is the 2nd place provider.
I will keep looking for that book that tackles new anti-trust theories cuz this aint it
July 10, 2009
A review/history of anti-trust law in the information age, how the laxity in antitrust law enforcement in the last 20th/early 21st century has coincided with the rise of software companies and the consequences. Reading about Microsoft in particular was like watching a slo-mo car crash. It's interesting -- I followed that for a while starting in about '97 or so, but this had lots more detail that I either didn't know or had forgotten.
More fascinating for me was reading about the consolidation in legal publishing companies, because it was entirely new to me, and a good illustration of the issues involved with information-based antitrust law.
A little slow/dry in spots, but generally a good book.
More fascinating for me was reading about the consolidation in legal publishing companies, because it was entirely new to me, and a good illustration of the issues involved with information-based antitrust law.
A little slow/dry in spots, but generally a good book.
September 12, 2009
The perfect mix of economic analysis, public policy discussion, autobiography, and non fiction legal drama.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews