Free the Market!: Why Only Government Can Keep the Marketplace Competitive (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: mail order prohibition, mail order ban, vertical nonprice restraints, Antitrust Division, Silicon Valley, Supreme Court (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Congress enacted a series of measures, known as antitrust laws, designed to protect consumers from monopolies and collusion among competitors that undermine the fairness of the marketplace. Though enforced haphazardly, these laws set the rules of competition in a free-market economy until the early 1980s, when government policy makers under Ronald Reagan began to dismantle antitrust enforcement and adopt more “business-friendly” procedures based on the conservative notion that all markets will self-correct when government simply gets out of the way. Reback, one of the nation’s most prominent antitrust attorneys, recounts many of the major court cases that he was involved in, including the breakup of AT&T, early cases of software copyright infringement, and the “trial of the century,” the federal lawsuit against Microsoft. By demonstrating how rampant price-fixing and hidden fees in everything from high-speed Internet access, wireless phone service, and cable providers to travel and financial services have stifled competition and produced higher-priced but inferior products and services for consumers, Reback makes the case for seriously reconsidering the laissez-faire approach to antitrust enforcement. --David Siegfried

Product Description

Why we need government intervention in the free market to protect competition and encourage innovation

Starting about thirty years ago, conservatives forced an overhaul of competition policy that has loosened business rules for everything from selling products to buying competitors.

Gary Reback thinks the changes have gone too far. Today’s competition policies, he argues, were made for the old manufacturing economy of the 1970s. But in a high-tech world, these policies actually slow innovation, hurt consumers, and entrench big companies at the expense of entrepreneurs.

Free the Market! is both a memoir of Reback’s titanic legal battles—involving top companies such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and AT&T—and a persuasive argument for measured government intervention in the free market to foster competition. Among the fascinating questions he considers:

• Can a company ever compete too hard for the public good?
• Should policy makers worry more about promoting competition or improving efficiency?
• Does it help consumers when a manufacturer sets the prices its retailers charge?
• Should the government do more to stop controversial mergers?
• At what point does intellectual property protection hurt innovation?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover (April 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591842468
• ISBN-13: 978-1591842460
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,517 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book for Antitrust, April 20, 2009

By	Abigail Slater (Washington D.C., USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is thoughtful, well researched, and fluently written. Whether the reader agrees with his position on antitrust enforcement and Chicago School economics or not, Reback has clearly walked the walk throughout his long career as an antitrust practitioner. His viewpoint therefore deserves careful review and consideration by anyone involved in the antitrust field.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Book for Silicon Valley, May 11, 2009

By	ladyjazz17 "ladyjazz17" (Santa Clara, California United States) - See all my reviews

Free the Market! is a fascinating account that shows why Silicon Valley (and other) entrepreneurs and innovators need more than self-regulating markets to help them succeed. For the past three decades, monopolists have blocked or made life difficult for some great firms, and harmed consumers in the process by limiting their choices. There are many illuminating examples throughout the book - they include, among others, a riveting account of what happened to Netscape, and how the mega-mergers of AT&T/SBC and Verizon/MCI made all of us much poorer as a result of those mergers, literally as well as figuratively.

An excellent book, very well-written and clear, with entertaining vignettes along the way!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Page-Turner, April 16, 2009

By	Avid Reader - See all my reviews

I really LOVED this book. I picked it up as soon as it came, and couldn't put it down. I found the book fascinating both from the standpoint of the history and the policy, and it was also a very good read.