[DoodleBob]

Coming out of today's story that the Justice Dept is considering an antitrust probe of Google, and the accompanying spirited debate about whether or not govt intervention is 'right,' I found this video of the top firms by market value over time to be insightful. In short, nobody stays on top forever.

If you can't access the video, this picture is a nice summary of how the Invisible Hand may be more effective than trusting the same type of people who work at the Department of Motor Vehicles, to get it right in breaking up big liberal tech:

[FredZarguna]

The question isn't simply one of laissez-faire free market capitalism vs. dumb government intervention, but whether Google (and other big tech companies) have used monopoly power anti-competitively.

It's pretty clear they have.

So the next question is whether their abuse is egregious enough to justify intervention. Not a clear-cut decision.

[bigbob]

Communism has left the building

[for-q-clinton]

This is old. Microsoft is back on top and they were hit by DOJ in the past.

[pierrem15]

Pretty clear movement of the tech giants, financial companies and pharmaceuticals into the top ten— all of these are quasi monopolies in their fields.

[Alberta's Child]

I don’t think that chart tells the full story. A lot of those companies move up the list just through mergers and a acquisitions — not because other companies decline.