At the 2009 Fordham Antitrust conference, there was a long session on EU and US approaches to the control of state aid (state subsidies), in the context of the financial and economic crisis. The EU has an extensive State aid control regime, which requires notification to the European Commission of any aid that may distort competition and that affects inter-state trade. One of the US panelists indicated that there was no mechanism under US law to enforce a similar control over state aid by US states, and nor could there be. I had understood that the US commerce clause (whereby Congress shall have power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;”) […]
<blockquote>That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. Clay Shirky, <a href=”http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/”>Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable</a>, March 2009</blockquote> Different people draw different conclusions about law-making from this type of problem. For some, we cannot reasonably hope to understand the consequences of law or regulation in a fast-moving world, so we should avoid trying. (Though those who argue that we be slow to apply the antitrust rules in these areas, may also be the same people who argue for the introduction of software patents. What’s sauce for the goose is often not sauce for the gander.) At the 2009 Fordham antitrust conference, John Fingleton, the CEO of […]
A lot has been written about Google trying to capture the second-click: the age-old conflict that Google faces between being a pure navigation service – “We get you where you want to go” – and being a media company – “We get you to our properties, where we make more money if you stay.” Now take a look at a Techcrunch interview with Eric Schmidt: So I don’t know how to characterize the next 10 years except to say that we’ll get to the point – the long-term goal is to be able to give you one answer, which is exactly the right answer over time. Okay, you know, the question I’ll ask today, how many Americans have – what […]
