What is the anti-trust history and policy of the U.S.? Has it been successful?

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Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 09 Dec 2003 18:34 PST

How extensive of an answer are you expecting? I could write a book on
that subject, or I could do it in a paragraph. Let me (or another
Researcher) know what you want.  Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by fc225-ga on 09 Dec 2003 19:15 PST

a paragraph is fine...or just enough to answer the question..

First, if you're looking for a brief history of the antitrust
movement, here's one that can be found in one long paragraph:

A Short History of Antitrust Legislation in the U.S.
http://courses.umass.edu/econ331/Antitrust%20history.html

Here are two other sites that provide a good overview of antitrust history:

Antitrust Movement
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_004600_antitrustmov.htm

Antitrust History
http://1912.history.ohio-state.edu/Trusts/AntiTrustHistory.htm

To summarize, the prevention of monopolies has long been an interest
of the government in the United States, although until the end of the
19th century it was more the states than the federal government that
were involved.

The first major piece of federal legislation was the landmark Sherman
Act.  It basically was intended to invalidate any contract that led to
a restraint of trade. The act (as well as later legislation and court
rulings) led to the breaking up of the Northern Securities Company,
Standard Oil and American Tobacco. The most recent breakup of a
humongous company was that of American Telephone & Telegraph in 1982.

In recent years, the vigor with which the federal government has
pursued antitrust efforts has been a somewhat partisan matter. During
the 1980s the federal government was more tolerant of larger
companies; it's no coincidence the legal action against monopolization
by Microsoft occurred during the Clinton administration. But even
under the less hostile-to-corporate-America Bush administration, it
remains the policy of the U.S. government to prevent monopolies and
encourage competition.

Some of modern antitrust cases are discussed in this article:

Microsoft latest case in long U.S. antitrust history
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2001-06-28-microsoft-antitrust-history.htm

The following article also takes a look (an opiniated one) at modern
antitrust policy:

Is Big Bad?
http://greenspun.com/boohoo/related-for-transclusion.tcl?page_id=JBDeLong%5fHome&striphttp=0

I hope you find these articles useful.

Best wishes,

Mvguy-ga






Google search term used: history antitrust
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