Folded, spindled, and mutilated

Foreword by Carl Keysen One of the most important antitrust cases in 50 years, U.S. vs. IBM, was filed in 1969 and dropped by the Justice Department in 1982. This economic analysis by participants for the defense argues that the IBM case failed not because the antitrust laws are obsolete, but because the government and its economists made major analytical errors throughout the case. The topics they discuss in this book, which grew from their studies and the trial testimony, range over the standard and important ones in an antitrust case charging single-firm monopolizing: market definition, market share, technical change, entry barriers, behavior (predation), and profitability. Franklin Fisher, Professor of Economics at MIT, was the lead expert economist for the defense, assisted by John J. McGowan, Joen E. Greenwood, and others, all of the consulting firm of Charles River Associates. He is the editor of Antitrust and Regulation, (The MIT Press 1985). Folded, Spindled, and Mutilated is a Charles River Associates Study and seventh in The MIT Press series on the Regulation of Economic Activity, edited by Richard Schmalensee.