Paul Ryan: “hopefully Tuesday, September 26, marked the turning point in the misguided antitrust suit against Microsoft when the…”

“hopefully Tuesday, September 26, marked the turning point in the misguided antitrust suit against Microsoft when the Supreme Court turned down a Hail-Mary plea by the government to hear Microsoft's appeal. Two new studies, one from the Institute of Policy Innovation and one from the Association for Competitive Technology calculate the annual economic damages caused to our economy would range between $20 billion and $75 billion a year. I would like to quote Milton Friedman, the Nobel Laureate Economist who said, ``Silicon Valley is suicidal in calling government in to mediate in the disputes among some of the big companies in the area and Microsoft. The end result will be that an industry that up to now has been able to proceed at a marvelous pace with little or no government regulation is now going to have government all over it. It is going to spend in legal fees over the next 10 or 20 years, money which society would benefit from much more if it were spent in the kind of research and development that has brought us many miracles in the area of Internet, in the area of home computers, industry computers, and all the rest.'' The Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman, Charles Munger, says ``The Justice Department could hardly have come up with a more harmful set of demands than those it now makes. If it wins, our country will end up hobbling its best-performing high-tech businesses.'' I urge an end to this madness.”