Commentary

A United States federal court has found Google in breach of the Sherman Act by pursuing default status for Google Search and Google Chrome. However, Google's motives and the precise ways in which Google Search’s default status serves its interests remain poorly understood by the public and the antitrust community. They pertain to preventing users from migrating to competitors’ offerings in general and, in particular, to capturing user migration to next-generation platforms to access and search the internet. Understanding this motive will be essential in the calibration of forthcoming remedies and provide lessons for future cases against Google and other tech companies also confronted with user migration.

Summary Teaser: Howell E. Jackson revisits George Stigler’s famous 1964 critique of the Securities and Exchange Commission and particularly his critique of the work of SEC lawyer Milton Cohen, who headed the SEC’s Special Study of Securities Markets in the early 1960s.  Although time has validated Cohen’s intuitions regarding the value of expanding SEC oversight into over-the-counter markets, Stigler’s call for more careful economic analysis supported by robust empirical justification has heavily influenced how the SEC and other financial regulators stive to operate today.

Joel Seligman's article examines the historical debate surrounding the Securities and Exchange Commission's mandatory corporate disclosure system, focusing on George Stigler's influential 1964 critique and subsequent discussions. While acknowledging Stigler's role in sparking important questions about regulatory necessity, Seligman argues that critics often underestimated the historical evidence of securities fraud and the need for public market confidence, ultimately defending the continued relevance of mandated disclosure in securities regulation.

Madhavi Singh argues that antitrust alone cannot reign in Big Tech monopolies. Antitrust efforts need to be supplemented by changes to corporate governance that incorporate the interests of all stakeholders and not just those of profit-maximizing shareholders.

Judge Amit Mehta's ruling declaring Google a monopolist in search represents a significant development in the ongoing debate about Big Tech's market dominance. This decision, stemming from a United States Department of Justice lawsuit, highlights the culmination of years of discussions and research on antitrust issues in the technology sector, particularly surrounding Google's search practices.

Hamid Mehran examines the governance failures at Boeing that led to safety issues with its aircraft and proposes several measures to improve the company's safety culture and accountability. Mehran suggests enhancing board accountability through increased disclosure requirements, improving FAA oversight, fostering a culture that prioritizes safety and employee concerns, and restructuring employee compensation to incentivize teamwork and vigilance in detecting safety issues.

Roslyn Layton discusses the major outage caused by a software update from CrowdStrike. Layton explores the debate between the risks of concentrated IT security solutions as well as their benefits. She discusses the market response to the incident and examines potential solutions, including AI-driven testing and incremental rollouts, while arguing against government intervention as a fix.

Thomas Malthouse explores the skewed financial models that lead American railroads to underinvest in maintenance and profitable expansion, producing delays, derailments, and environmental catastrophes such as those that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, in 2023.

The Domain Name System (DNS), a 1985 technical invention, was transformed into critical global infrastructure by the policies of the United States government beginning in the 1990’s. While some challenges remain, the light-touch regulation promoted by both parties has proven highly successful.

Jake Goidell argues that the ongoing NCAA lawsuit settlements will not create a lasting solution unless athletes form a players association that is involved in determining industry-wide decisions.