Jackson and Greenspan-Guilty of Anti-Growth Collusion

The stock market-in particular, the NASDAQ-went on a wild ride earlier this week.  As usual the reasons for such volatility find their roots in government doing something stupid.

In the courts, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson announced on Monday that he found Microsoft to have violated antitrust laws.  While he is completely off base given the dynamics of the computer marketplace, Jackson's decision was not surprising, given his grossly misguided findings of fact last November.  However, what finally might be sinking in in the marketplace is that stodgy and rather clueless government officials-including regulators,  Department of Justice lawyers, and judges-have the ability to impose their own anachronistic views of how markets should work on the rest of us, including the high-tech industries of today and tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, Alan Greenspan's Federal Reserve continues to cause great uncertainty in the marketplace.  Based on a variety of comments over the past year or so, Greenspan seems to have moved some of his attention off of price stability (where the Fed should be focused) and onto stock prices.  The idea that the Fed Chairman-or any other powerful government official-believes that he knows where stock prices should be, and is working policy toward that end, is quite frightening.

Judge Jackson and Fed Chairman Greenspan are doing their best to cause trouble in the markets and the economy, and all of us-consumers, families, investors and businesses of all sizes and types-will pay the price.