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Obama names tech execs to transition team

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Re: Obama names tech execs to transition team

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current crisis reminded us that it's still a bad idea for the government to distort prices on a so massive scale (through fake interest rates), because truth has to eventually emerge through the price system anyway, and corrections have to happen. Failure can happen in the free market (that's how progress is made, through trial and error). But when governments decide that failure should never happen ("too big to…

Financial companies take calculated risks for themselves to make profits. But they don't have to take into account the effect of any losses they may cause in the economy as a whole (or more precisely, they only have to consider their share of them). How do you propose to get out of this collective action problem without some form of government regulation?

There is this moral hazard precisely because the government ends up bailing out the irresponsible (following the "too big to fail" mantra).

Instead, just let the financial companies (in fact, all companies, including GM) take full responsibility for what they do.

Re: Obama names tech execs to transition team

#32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most monopolies are caused by government, though. Mostly through barriers to entry for competition..

Was Microsoft caused by government? I thought it was because Gates convinced businessmen that using his solution and standardizing it would be the most efficient for the workplace. And it took the government stepping in to decentralize things.

Microsoft's monopoly in all areas is deteriorating due to the free market. For example, the browser market is now more of an oligopoly. Microsoft only maintains a majority market share because Firefox forced it to really put some work into IE 7.

Monopolies do exist in free markets, but they tend to be unstable and relatively short-lived. Things like AT&T's 100-year monopoly definitely require some government intervention.

Re: Obama names tech execs to transition team

#33
post #32
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Microsoft caused by government? I thought it was because Gates convinced businessmen that using his solution and standardizing it would be the most efficient for the workplace. And it took the government stepping in to decentralize things.

Microsoft's monopoly in all areas is deteriorating due to the free market. For example, the browser market is now more of an oligopoly. Microsoft only maintains a majority market share because Firefox forced it to really put some work into IE 7. Monopolies do exist in free markets, but they tend to be unstable and relatively short-lived. Things like AT&T's 100-year monopoly definitely require some government interven…

The question is, would Microsoft have broken up had it not been for Bill Gates being hauled in front of a federal commission and forced to break Microsoft into smaller divisions? Because the free market didn't split Microsoft, the federal government did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft#Governme...

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