Writes Dr. Edwin A. Locke of the Ayn Rand Institute:
Not content with the battering of Microsoft by the U.S. government and many state governments, the European Commission has now decided to stomp on Microsoft some more.
Why? Because Microsoft is not doing enough to help competitors who make audio and video files or server software! This action comes just two years after the same commission prevented an important merger between GE and Honeywell. Between the capitalist-hating Europeans and the capitalist-bashing Americans, how are our most successful companies supposed to function–that is, to grow and innovate?President Bush should start by threatening the Europeans with retaliation unless they immediately cease their persecution of Microsoft and of all other large American companies that have done nothing more than be successful at what they do. He should then seek to eliminate antitrust persecution in the United States. If we want our economy to grow, if we want to get out of our recession, if we want to help stem our huge budget deficit, we need all the economic growth we can get. And the most essential pre- condition of economic growth is: freedom from government coercion.