Obama and the Europeanization of American Capitalism
Does the president want to lead the U.S. down the path towards a new era of global socialism?
The European Union made one of the most significant antitrust decisions in its history on May 13 when it found computer chip-maker Intel guilty of anticompetitive practices in Europe. Intel was fined more than €1 billion ($1.45 billion) on charges that it violated EU monopoly rules by selling chips below cost to computer makers, to the detriment of its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Even though the most likely consequence of the EU’s action will be higher prices for consumers, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes hailed the move. “Given that Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for over five years, the size of the fine should come as no surprise,” she declared.
EU regulators said they calculated Intel’s fine — 4 percent of last year’s $37.6 billion in worldwide sales — on the value of its European chip sales over the five years that it broke European law. The EU could have gone even higher as EU antitrust rules allow for a fine of up to 10 percent of a company’s annual global revenue for each year of noncompliance. After Kroes announced the fine, which must be paid within three months, she joked that Intel is now the “sponsor of the European taxpayer,” a spoof on the company’s new ad campaign “sponsors of tomorrow.”
Intel is not the first American technology giant to be slapped down by the European competition regulator. In 2001, the European Commission blocked the planned merger of General Electric and Honeywell, even though both companies were based in the United States and American regulators had already approved the merger. And in 2004, the EU ordered Microsoft to pay a fine of more than $600 million for abusing its dominant position in the software market, plus an additional fine for failing to respect the antitrust ruling. The EU also ordered Microsoft to give away for free its trade secrets to competitors.
Like Microsoft, Intel claims it is simply building a better mousetrap and that European regulators, blinded by protectionist dogma, are short-sightedly stifling innovation. But Europe’s corporatist economic model, which allows EU bureaucrats to manipulate economic outcomes at their will, seeks not only to ensure that consumers are not harmed by monopolistic behavior, but also that competitors are not harmed by other competitors, even if they happen to offer better products and services. As a result, the European case against Intel actually is a backdoor industrial policy that is masquerading as competition policy. (Although it is, no doubt, also European protectionism masquerading as “consumer protection.”)
The EU’s regulatory activism may soon have an important effect in the United States as well. Indeed, far from contesting the economic and legal flaws in the EU mindset, the Obama administration seems eager to bring American competition policy into line with the European model. In a May 11 speech, Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney, who is U.S. President Barack Obama’s new antitrust chief, announced a return to “vigorous antitrust enforcement action” by the U.S. Justice Department. At the same time, Varney withdrew a report issued in September 2008 by the Bush administration which delineated a laissez-fair approach to enforcing the Sherman Act, the federal statute that deals with monopolization cases. The report held that markets are usually self-correcting and that big companies are agents of economic efficiency that should be constrained only if their action “disproportionately harms consumers.” But Varney said: “We must change course and take a new tack.”
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Soeren Kern is Senior Analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.
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38 Comments
1. Marie Claude:http://ow.ly/7vz5 a good ol war with our neighbours will pep up the economies
and the Guardian says “hello China the new superpower”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/17/david-miliband-china-world-power
May 18, 2009 - 1:45 am 2. Snake eater:Kudos Soeren! SFS representing. Adm. Stearman would be proud.
May 18, 2009 - 2:47 am 3. Irish Alex:Your argument would carry more weight if you did not misrepresent the case against Intel. They were not fined for offering rebates, they were fined for offering rebates conditional on the customer not stocking competing products, or only allowing 5% of their products to be non-intel. Given how much more money they had to throw at the problem than AMD, it was very effective. It was however, an abuse of a monopolistic position. As was the case against Microsoft.
May 18, 2009 - 3:13 am 4. Ed Wallis:The EU is spectacularly self-righteous, especially in the face of its own failures, but trying to claim that monopolies are a good thing just to berate them? That’s just not reasonable.
Answer: To can American soverignty.
May 18, 2009 - 3:18 am 5. howiem:“Does he want to lead American down the path towards a new era of global socialism?”
May 18, 2009 - 3:26 am 6. David Thomson:When I first saw the above sentence, I had to ask myself why this question was even written, when the answer “Yes” is so obvious. Does the auther still have doubts after Obama started interfering in corporate matters? After giving a union control of Chrysler? After his “distribute the wealth statements? After reading what little we know of his background and experience? Obama is a Marxist. He is no centrist. He is a typical arrogant Statist. Stop looking at one aspect, at one incident. Stop merely listening to his sound and pay attention to what he and his collaborationist Congress are actually doing. Then you will never have to ask that question again.
“The big question for Americans is why Obama would want to cede more global enforcement authority to the Europeans.”
Barack Obama attended “elite” American universities that often encourage its graduates to feel inferior next to the allegedly superior Europeans. We are disgusting capitalists while they wonderfully share the wealth among their citizens. On a gut level, Obama believes we must catch up to our betters. Furthermore, he has not been shy in saying so. Have we already forgotten his famous conversation with Joe the Plumber?
May 18, 2009 - 3:48 am 7. Karsten:Antitrust policy is still very weak in the European Union, and these companies behave like they were on the same level as the Commission. Extremely arogent and meddle with European politics as if they were citizens of the EU. It is high time that the USA ends the defunct nature of their own antitrust policy. We can’t do all the work for you in Europe! Markets need powerful competition enforcement.
May 18, 2009 - 4:13 am 8. John:Sorry dude, but you totally missed it with this composition; Intel was forcing buyers not to carry competitions’ products, have been trying to sue others (legitimately operating within valid agreements) out of existence, and yes, stifling competition, on both sides of “the pond”. You should do yourself a favor and delete this dribble, (and I agree Obama is worrisome). Take Microsoft as an example–they litigate legit business out of existence all the time, and they break their own APIs to prevent interoperability: they weren’t ordered to “give away trade secrets”, they were ordered to stop abusing a monopoly position, to document their specs truly and stop breaking and changing their own protocols to prevent competition–they’re not just an OS company, you know; some of orders weren’t legit consequences (like un-bundling the media player that’s freely downloadable), but they weren’t undue some dealing with. Basically you’ve tried to marry two non-issues. In nerd terms, “fail” (with love).
p.s. I admire Microsoft.
p.s. again, did they actually bar companies from merging that are out of their jurisdiction? Seriously? Write something on that! (Though please, please, please, have it checked by various people in the know in various areas of in-the-know before publishing.)
May 18, 2009 - 5:43 am 9. Trid:“EU ordered Microsoft to pay a fine of more than $600 million for abusing its dominant position in the software market, plus an additional fine for failing to respect the antitrust ruling. The EU also ordered Microsoft to give away for free its trade secrets to competitors.”
“Intel was fined more than €1 billion ($1.45 billion) on charges that it violated EU monopoly rules by selling chips below cost to computer makers, to the detriment of its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).”
What a crock of sh*t. The reason Intel and Microsoft are so large is because they know how to do business, not because they have masterminded some global conspiracy to sell Europeans software and computer parts on the cheap.
Microsoft’s case, I seem to remember, was about making Internet Explorer the default web browser on all it’s Operating Systems, and ‘driving out competition’.
And what know? Intel has the ability to sell chips cheaper than AMD? Last I checked, these were all legitimate business maneuvers. If they can afford it, I urge all American companies to stop selling their products in Europe.
Let’s see them go a couple years with only aging, craptastic hardware and half baked software for a while.
May 18, 2009 - 6:01 am 10. dan:The word “convergence” springs inexorably to mind. Will they be able to accomplish ‘global socialism’ (i.e. World Revolution)? Almost certainly not. But since a prerequisite of socialism is the subtle or outright destruction or cooptation of its competitor theories and institutions, whether or not true global socialism can ever be established will mean little as we sit blinking at the poverty and aching with nostalgia and revenge. And then comes the coup d’etat… oops I mean “people’s revolution”…
Or maybe nothing will happen. Who knows. Someone bring me some McDonald’s breakfast please, because I love AngloSaxon capitalism.
May 18, 2009 - 6:42 am 11. Meryl:Keep in mind that barry did not grow up in America. He grew up in Indonesia. He does not have American tradition, history and childhood memories running in his blood.
Therefore, there is no ingrained urgency to protect America’s ideals or honor American contracts.
He has publicly and proudly asserted executive power to force contracts to be set aside, most recently in financial and manufacturing industries. This in itself is unconstitutional.
If oncologists read their diagnostic X-rays on new cancer patients the way the apparently terminally patient bloggers keep on “evaluating what barry is doing and why”, no cancer patient would ever be treated, for lack of arriving at the obvious answer. “Yup. It’s cancer.”
This endless willingness to try to find new and more clever interpretations of the motives of the boy throwing rocks at the windows is just a fresh iteration of political correctness: just can’t stand to acknowledge that he is what he appears to be, a person who hates America and wants to see her taken down.
May 18, 2009 - 6:57 am 12. JED:Since before the Revolutionary War there have been American citizens, the Loyalists and Tories who have wanted American government to remain a colony of England and the Europeans. For whatever fascination, being under the rule of a king, and the Old World civilities, and the fashions of Europe has been a drawing factor in political factions. Perhaps some people need to be ruled by the monarch, the czar, or royality. The Hollywood crowd certainly like to be treated as royality.
May 18, 2009 - 7:26 am 13. anton:That is exactly why I support the substance of the Tea Partys. It is not foremost for taxation without representation, but to finally dismiss and divorce the allures of the Old World with the great potentials of the New World’s great experiment.
Let’s face it, the EU is a mess, aging populations are only maintained by importing unassimilatable foreigners, shrinking economies that are sustained by governmental life support, defense forces that are hopelessly inadequate and a near total lack of technological innovation (when was the last time a great “new thing” came out of Europe). The only hope they have is that the nations that only recently escaped the Soviet Block will breathe some life into the emaciated old man that is western europe.
May 18, 2009 - 8:27 am 14. The Shadow:This column is the triumph of non sequitors. Let me see if I can follow this nonsense. Increasing competition leads to socialism!
May 18, 2009 - 8:27 am 15. David Thomson:“Increasing competition leads to socialism!”
The Europeans are not increasing legitimate competition. They are similar to a racing judge who forces the champion horse to compete with a hundred pound weight on its back. The actual race would end up not worth watching. Microsoft’s competitors know they can now slack off because some egalitarian judge will save their incompetent rear ends from the dictates of the marketplace.
May 18, 2009 - 8:42 am 16. Sherab Zangpo:“Does he want to lead American down the path towards a new era of global socialism?”
To quote a much better writer than I am, Sir:
THAT IS THE QUESTION
To do that, he’d need to maim the Constitution.
Then , Freedom will have gone from the world.
I sincerely hope he is not the marxist we suspect him to be.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
May 18, 2009 - 8:43 am 17. anton:14. The Shadow: Almost right….penalising success leads to socialism.
May 18, 2009 - 8:47 am 18. Self-hating Boomer:Advantage: China (and I don’t think Vlad particularly minds US economic suicide, either).
May 18, 2009 - 9:24 am 19. Delia:11. Meryl,
Great analogy [re: "it's cancer"]. That reminds me of the bleeding hearts who try to figure out why someone turns out to be a mass murderer, psychopath/sociopath or a child molestor. As painful as it is to accept, some people are born to do evil. I’m sure Hitler was a cute baby at one time. *cough-cough*
17. anton:
“Almost right….penalising success leads to socialism.”
-As well as rewarding incompetence and outright laziness. ‘Too obese to fail’ or go bankrupt.
Who needs a middle class? You all get to be poor now except for ‘US’ higher ups. Yay socialism! Anyone want to work, toil and slave away? Dr. death says you’re not healthy enough to ‘deserve’ any further medical care. Buh bye! No more 0bama bux for you!
May 18, 2009 - 9:34 am 20. Track-A-'Crat:Yes, he does. And pretty soon he’ll drop the pretense of doing otherwise.
This is what happens when once-great countries (as is happening to an even worse degree in the United Kingdom) indulge in pointless self-flagellation and moral relativism.
The worst mistake we (the advanced nations) made was not putting an end to socialism once and for all when we had the chance.
http://trackacrat.com/2009/04/04/clone-him-just-to-kill-him-again/
May 18, 2009 - 9:51 am 21. ked5:5. howiem:
“Does he want to lead American down the path towards a new era of global socialism?”
When I first saw the above sentence, I had to ask myself why this question was even written, when the answer “Yes” is so obvious.
~~~~
I too consider this rhetorical question redundant, only the blind-by-choice don’t see it is a *yes*. bambiovich only knows how to look for a job and the next job on his list is king of the world. Just watch what he *does*.
May 18, 2009 - 9:51 am 22. anton:Mayhaps “Harrison Bergeron” should be required reading?
May 18, 2009 - 9:54 am 23. SAL:I didn’t vote for obama– I wish far more people had NOT voted for him– we are stuck with him for for 4 years– please no 2nd term– already he is spending so much of our money– GOD HELP US
May 18, 2009 - 12:06 pm 24. Marie Claude:#13, Anton
Let’s face it, the EU is a mess, aging populations are only maintained by importing unassimilatable foreigners, shrinking economies that are sustained by governmental life support, defense forces that are hopelessly inadequate and a near total lack of technological innovation (when was the last time a great “new thing” came out of Europe). The only hope they have is that the nations that only recently escaped the Soviet Block will breathe some life into the emaciated old man that is western europe.
aging ? so does America, unassimilable foreigners, how about your black population that is in America for more than 2 centuries ? how about your unnumerable latin illegals ? how about the muslim powerful lobby, CAIR ?
total lack of innovation ? I begg your perdon !!! Last week we launched a new satellit from our space site with Ariane space consortium, our planes and train technologies are the most advanced in the world, uh what about our nuclear new reactor ? sorry, not made in America…
Also, can I remember that your country sponsorise your plane industry , your agriculture… that she taxes 3 x times higher our imported agricultural products…
well, as we say, “chacun voit midi à sa porte”, don’t mourn if we take some measures to promote our industry !
socialism does that, umm, what about socialist China too ? same way of handling businesses, though I must acknoledge that a Chinese life is lesser priced than a european life, ie work conditions !!!
May 18, 2009 - 12:12 pm 25. The Shadow:Delia & Meryl: I think the two of you were made for each other – both devoid of logic
May 18, 2009 - 2:24 pm 26. Delia:25. The Shadow,
I appreciate Sister Meryl’s on-topic posts and yes, I agree with a lot of what she has to share/say.
Devoid of logic? You didn’t even back up your choosing of two women on this blog to pick on with any concret proof. Oh wait, are you another POM/Sheesh who gets paid to post drivel here? Boy, you’re a waste of money for the Lefties/Soros! Maybe you should be more like POM and focus your fantasies/energies on Dohbama’s unit.
The worker bees can only sustain you lazy, libtards for so long under a socialist regime. Then, you too will be expected to pull your own weight whether you like it or not and then it’s going to get ugly when you couch-jockeys are required to slave away with the rest of the Country.
Now, make like a ’shadow’ and slink away, little mind.
May 18, 2009 - 3:12 pm 27. Will:Yes it’s Socialism my friends,you were warned.
May 18, 2009 - 3:28 pm 28. Eric:Obama is a typical Socialist. He believes he and a small group of Leftist elites are more qualified than We the People are to make our own life’s decisions. The socialist Left is now and always has been the party of freedom within a strict set of boundaries established by the self-appointed ruling elite. This kind of smug arrogance will lead to an ugly backlash. I for one won’t be told what to do by any Leftist and will be no man’s indentured servant.
May 18, 2009 - 3:59 pm 29. ReCon USMC:Not to Worry about aging used up …going backwards ….Dying Europe … little production… countless Union strikes …sick and way over taxed Europe .
May 18, 2009 - 4:23 pm 30. Marie Claude:What to worry about is another Pacistkan In all of Western Europe run by radical Moslem Wahhabist(Al Quada(Saudi A. )Paistkan and the Telibane are all Wahhabist ) in 20-25 years .Do the simple math many like great authors
J, Goldberg ,
Victor D.Hanson , Daniel Pipes and Mark Styn have written several books on that very subject already .
Since the birth rate by Moslems in Europe is 7.1 out of every 10 births in Europe .”"Just for the Record those Moslems hate EUROPEANS and want Shria law in the Future there for all of Europe without question .
I took my Lady to Paris 4 years ago . It Stunk and was a Cess Poole(Europeans) Bitch ..Bitch .. Bitch over the Govt. there …. dirty streets there and moslems were rioting that late April and MAY . Then 19,271 died in July due to having no AC when they had a Heat wave there .
Enough said .
Most most who live in Paris don’t go into Moslems hoods because of terrible Crimes on French man and women there ….. even the French Police stay out of there as well ….. it is about 7 miles sq right in the heart of Paris .
ReCon USMC,
LMAO, you only read what’s scaring you, yeah, fairy tale have also their monsters, and though they are children’s favorites !!!
Well thee smart persons you’re quoting, didn’t occur to you that they have an agenda ?
to make you believe that Europe is a dead hole for socialism dhimminitude, that we surrendered to muslims, and that’s why, you, the Americans, should endorse the “war über alle Muslims and socialists” but their discourse reflect the arms industry lobby, from which they get subsides !!!
Now Paris isn’t only what you describe I agree, though, the dogs’s cacas aren’t a nice experience, and that our students and unions are often out in the street, but contrary what you imagined, they are the expression of our still democraty, and the muslims scum, (but not only, all immigrant youth cofounded) are in custody in their popular suburds, not in Paris city, otherwise d’ya think that 80 million of tourist would just want to watch how we are doomed ?
May 18, 2009 - 5:28 pm 31. Meryl:Isn’t freedom of speech a wonderful thing, Delia?
I intend to keep exercising it.
I would never have believed that little ol’ me could create such a ruckus by just commenting on publicly documented events.
May 18, 2009 - 6:26 pm 32. Delia:31. Meryl,
“I would never have believed that little ol’ me could create such a ruckus by just commenting on publicly documented events.”
Par for the course here, darlin’. When you get ’singled’ out, it means you’re doing something right! Keep exercising that freedom of speech whilst we still have it to exercise. One thing I’m happy about is how many conservative women have been commenting here…!
A thick skin and a sense of humor will get us far…oh…and that leetle thing known as the ‘truth’.
Love your posts sooooooo much, babydoll!
Take that, Shadow!
he-he-he *raspberries @ Peter Pan Personified*
May 18, 2009 - 7:07 pm 33. fred:Delia,
The Shadow is an idiot. Why do we bother with these Axelrod/Soros trolls? They are here to disrupt and demoralize. I have it on good information that the Obonga ops are set up exactly for that purpose.
Part of me certainly would have fun getting inside their heads, but… on the other thing perhaps the only thing I want inserted in their heads are any of these calibers (45, 357, 9mm, etc.).
May 18, 2009 - 8:36 pm 34. David W. Lincoln:As long as elected government officials, be they in municipal, state or federal politics think they can have it both ways (no company based outside
of the United States is eligible to bid for contracts that came into being via the stimulus package), they are sadly mistaken.
For they are jeopardizing the chances that companies based in the United States, would get when bidding for contracts in Canada (for instance) that come into being because of stimulus contracts in whichever country.
Alienating friends is not an act of friendship.
May 19, 2009 - 8:18 am 35. Don Rhudy:Were Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot dictators! Duh!
May 19, 2009 - 12:55 pm 36. Delia:33. fred:
“Part of me certainly would have fun getting inside their heads, but… on the other thing perhaps the only thing I want inserted in their heads are any of these calibers (45, 357, 9mm, etc.).”
~
fred!
I agree!
May 19, 2009 - 7:46 pm 37. Will:He certainly does,as sure as water runs down hill.He’s made creeping socialism into speedy socialism.
May 20, 2009 - 7:15 am 38. susan:incredible, a french frog (marie claude) comes here lecturing americans while she never bothered to learn proper english first. Don’t you think you sound ridiculous?
Oh and it’s spelled DHIMMITUDE (not dhimminitude), I thought the term was popular in your arabian speaking suburbs. So other than learning decently the language of the people that you come here to insult, maybe you should also educate yourself on several other subjects.
May 21, 2009 - 8:11 am