Exactly. Microsoft was a monopoly, was it? Lamest monopoly ever seeing as they lost it in about ten years flat. Real monopolies are from government protecte

Exactly. Microsoft was a monopoly, was it? Lamest monopoly ever seeing as they lost it in about ten years flat. Real monopolies are from government protected industries like taxicabs, which have been making monopoly profits for 50, 60, 70 years. Anti-trust laws - and he seeming unpredictability of when they might be applied, have a very real effect on business activities. And there is very little evidence they have ever done any good - while real, government created monopolies on many markets continue to injure consumers blatantly, all with the blessing of legislators. In my country, firms were fined for bundling fuel discounts - so we had the absurd case of a government department fining a company for selling goods cheaply to consumers. To me, antitrust laws are just a weapon the legislators use when they come across a company they don't like. They add no protection for consumers because there isn't a way to use them against government created or controlled monopolies.