European Union bureaucrats have amassed such a mountain of job-killing rules—from economic to fiscal to monetary and regulatory—that they’ve made successful European startups as rare as French military victories. So how do they plan to restore growth to the sclerotic European economy? By launching a new attack on successful American companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple, whom they blame for their continental failures.
Notably missing from the latest enemies list is Microsoft, a once-favorite whipping boy of Euro-extortionists who have moved on to their next target. So just like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer once had to fly to Brussels to grovel before some sinecured political functionaries to be allowed to do their job, now it’s the turn of Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, and Tim Cook to explain why they should be allowed to continue running circles around those few remaining European technology entrepreneurs that haven’t yet decamped to the U.S.
The new EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager—who apparently learned about competition from a book since her resume indicates she has never worked in the private sector—has encouraged the European Parliament to pass a resolution demanding the breakup of Google. While we are more likely to see Greece make good on its toxic bonds than watch Google broken up, this constant saber-rattling ramps up the pressure on the EU’s antitrust targets to settle by paying massive “fines,” hoping the Eurocrats will just go away, satisfied with fresh money to stimulate their parliamentary payrolls.
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And of course since the US government is anti-business the Europeans know they can savage google all they want.
Right on Bill!!