Hahaha yeah man, the energy crisis of the 70s was because Big Gov broke up Standard Oil!! Totally.

I'm SO SAD Alcoa can't continue to grow :( :( http://www.ncconservationnetwork.org/mainblog/alcoa-worldwid... http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eGLnvta... http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lnXnXtr...

Exactly. What company doesn't favor its own products to people who are using something the company provides free of charge?

Favoring your own products is fine when you don't have a market-dominant position. The rules change when you reach a certain level of dominance: that's the gist of antitrust law.

So it doesn't matter if you're doing the same thing you always did, or that other less-dominant companies do regularly. Certain pricing strategies, product-tie-ins, contractual agreements that were legal, stop being legal.

I'd agree that's kind of a mess because there's no bright-line indicator you've crossed the threshold. It has to be argued, via a bunch of somewhat subjective and ad hoc per industry standards, after the allegations of abusive behavior come up.

So perhaps there shouldn't be any antitrust law. Or it should operate on totally different grounds. But given the way it has been legislated and practiced, doing the same thing other rational companies do is not an accepted defense.

It's 'Alcoa', and from the Reason article, it wasn't 'dismantled', just limited in its potential for expansion. (Other companies at other times, like Standard Oil or AT&T, were dismantled.)

Somewhat related... there is a very interesting documentary just released about the break-up of AT&T, how it led to our modern communications networks and the man who was responsible:

  Long Distance Warrior: The story of Bill McGowan, MCI's legendary CEO

PBS Trailer: http://video.wttw.com/video/1949293907/