The FTC declares war against Google

Earlier this week according to the Wall Street Journal, "The Federal Trade Commission is poised to serve Google Inc. with civil subpoenas, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling the start of a wide-ranging, formal investigation into whether the Internet-search giant has abused its dominance on the Web. The agency’s five-member panel of commissioners is preparing to send its formal demands for information to Google within days, these people said. They said other companies are likely to receive official requests for information about their dealings with Google at a later stage.
Representatives for Google and the FTC declined to comment. The [FTC's] inquiry…will examine fundamental issues relating to Google’s core search-advertising business, said people familiar with the matter. The business is the source of most of Google’s revenue. The issues include whether Google—which accounts for around two-thirds of Internet searches in the U.S. and more abroad—unfairly channels users to its own growing network of services at the expense of rival providers.In November, the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, opened its own formal investigation into allegations by several companies that Google had violated European competition laws. Google denies the allegations"

We are witnessing the Federal Government declaring war against Google all because they have satisfied billions of consumers. As Declan McCullagh has reported: "It was inevitable that Google, one of the world’s largest technology companies, would find itself in the crosshairs of the Washington antitrust establishment. But what is, or should be, a little surprising is how enthusiastic the establishment became about pulling the trigger."

The apologists for antitrust laws will certainly tell us that "we need antitrust laws to protect us from monopolies and promote competition!" But this is certainly not true. Prior to the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, there were no monopolies that dominated the market. Let us quote Alan Greenspan (before he became a central-planner): "The world of antitrust is reminiscent of Alice's Wonderland: everything seemingly is, yet apparently isn't, simultaneously. It is a world in which competition is lauded as the basic axiom and guiding principle, yet 'too much'competition is condemned as 'cutthroat.' It is a world in which actions designed to limit competition are branded as criminal when taken by businessmen, yet praised as 'enlightened' when initiated by government. It is a world in which the law is so vague that businessmen have no way of knowing whether specific actions will be declared illegal until they hear the judge's verdict-after the fact."

In the following video, which was filmed back in 1983, Congressman Ron Paul discusses antitrust laws and monopoly with  Dominick T. Armentano, who wrote a book entitled Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure.