Galileo muttered the phrase Eppur si muove, And yet it moves, after being forced to recant in 1633, before the Inquisition, his belief that the Earth moves around the Sun. Similarly the new inquisition of regulators force executives to admit something they did not do, in order to get smaller penalties. Eppur si muove! http://venitism.blogspot.com
EU antitrust has been transformed into a terrorist religion, which relies on pseudoeconomic theories that bestow a veneer of objectivity and credibility on EU law enforcement practices that actually rely on hunch, whim, and blackmail. There is only one violator of Fourth Reich antitrust, and that's Fourth Reich itself, which does not allow VAT competition, fixing 15% floor of VAT and 25% ceiling of VAT!
On all EU antitrust cases, from mergers to price fixing, arbitrary antitrust laws lead to ill-informed juries and bureaucratic abuse. Those laws also create a perverse incentive for entrepreneurs to hold down sales volume, stop innovation, and avoid improvements in price, quality, and service; otherwise, such entrepreneurs could become the next targets of the antitrust terrorists.
The European Commission has opened an in-depth stupid investigation under the EU Merger Regulation into the planned merger between Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext Inc., two leading stock exchange groups active worldwide. The Commission's stupid initial market investigation indicated competition concerns in a number of areas, in particular in the field of derivatives trading and clearing.
European antitrust laws lead to huge corruption, because government officials ask for kickbacks in order to erase the alleged violation. The standard kickback in EU is 10% of the erased penalty! Many Greek officials were caught on tape asking for the corrupt tithe! Many European political parties make up their election expenses from kickbacks on antitrust cases! This is the worst possible blackmail, where tiptop ethical companies are held hostage by European kleptocrats. Eppur si muove!
The Commission now has 90 working days, until 13 December 2011, to take a final decision on whether the transaction would reduce effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA). The decision to open an in-depth inquiry does not prejudge the final result of the stupid investigation.
European antitrust law is wielded most often by favor-seeking businessmen and their kleptocrat allies. Instead of focusing on new and better products, disgruntled rivals try to exploit the law by consorting with kleptocrats. EU officials routinely direct antitrust regulators to bend the rules in pursuit of political ends. In reality, the threat of abusive EC power is far larger than the threat of oligopoly. Eppur si muove!
Joaquin Almunia, Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy wrongfully claims the proposed merger would remove a strong competitor from the market and would give the merged company by far the leading position in derivatives trading in Europe. The stupid Commission needs to make sure that markets which are at the heart of the financial sector remain competitive and efficiently deliver to users.
The only viable definition of monopoly is a grant of privilege from the government. It therefore becomes quite clear that it is impossible for the government to decrease monopoly by passing punitive laws. The only way for the government to decrease monopoly is to remove its own monopoly grants. The antitrust laws, therefore, do not in the least diminish monopoly. What they do accomplish is to impose a continual, capricious harassment of efficient business enterprise.
The Commission's initial market investigation pointed to significant concerns with respect to derivatives, as the transaction would bring together the two largest derivatives exchanges in Europe. Derivatives are financial contracts whose value is derived from an underlying asset or variable, such as stocks, interest rates, or currencies.
There is an Antitrust Armageddon in Europe between tiptop companies and Fourth Reich(EU). Eurokleptocrats are willing to do anything in order to get kickbacks from industry leaders. The European antitrust laws have the unfortunate consequence of harming Europeans by chilling innovation and discouraging competition. Instead of protecting competition, EU laws protect competitors who give kickbacks to kleptocrats! Kickback is the lubricant that allows a European industry to run smoothly! No European machinery can run without lubricant! Eppur si muove! http://venitism.blogspot.com
Derivatives are generally used for hedging, investment purposes, and overall risk management in financial markets. Clearing plays an important role in derivatives trading. The purpose of clearing is to manage the risk of the trading parties in the interim period between trading and settlement.
When a company is forward-thinking, proactive, innovative, and productive, it will produce good products that customers want to buy. As a result, it will win a large market share. If the company is much better than its competitors, it might win most, or almost all, of the market. This is the case with Microsoft. It has earned its market share by producing good products that customers want to buy.
At this stage, the stupid Commission is mainly concerned that due to the removal of an important competitor, the merger would have a negative impact on innovation in derivatives products and technology solutions. Moreover, the possibilities for fee competition may be reduced due to increased difficulties for competitors to enter the market. Customers who could be affected by this include pension funds, mutual funds and retail banks, as well as professional brokers and investment banks.
A company that wins a large market through its own productive efforts deserves accolades. This is because justice, morally, tells us that we must reward the good. However, to the government, a large market share is taken as evidence of anti-competitive behavior, which makes the company a target for antitrust action. This seems to be the motive behind the DOJ's suit against Microsoft. http://venitism.blogspot.com
The stupid investigation revealed concerns that in the absence of access to the merged company's enlarged post-trade clearing facilities, i.e. in the presence of a closed vertical silo, entry by rival derivatives platforms would be made more difficult in a market already characterised by high barriers to entry.
To punish the good because it is good is the most vile inversion of justice conceivable. Yet this is the essence of antitrust, and this is exactly what the DOJ is doing to Microsoft. Microsoft is being targeted because it is good at its business, because it is successful, because it is competent. Nothing could be more unjust than this.
During the initial market investigation, stupid concerns were also raised in a number of other areas, in particular in equities trading and settlement and index licensing.
If you want to produce something in America or Fourth Reich, you'd better play the game. Contribute to politicians' campaigns, hire their friends, go hat in hand to a hearing, and apologize for your success. In a parasite economy no good deed goes unpunished for long. Kleptocrats, seeing an opportunity to extend their power and rake in some campaign cash and kickbacks, are circling like sharks. When executives don't show up when kleptocrats invite them, all it does is to increase kleptocrats' interest in what executives are doing and why they do not show up. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Deutsche Boerse is active across the whole life chain of trading, clearing and settlement of financial instruments. It operates a number of stock exchanges worldwide, among which the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Eurex derivatives exchange.
The economy is a good deal for people with connections. Executives are willing to invest money in kleptocrats, because they see opportunities in them. Executives see they can win things, that there's something to be gained. Washington and Brussels have become profit centers. All this reflects Depression-era criminal Willie Sutton's observation about robbing banks: That's where the money is.
NYSE Euronext is also active worldwide. It operates a number of stock exchanges in Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Paris), the New York Stock Exchange, and the Liffe derivatives exchange, based in London. The transaction was notified to the Commission on 29 June 2011.
Kleptocrats are costing trillions of euros and dollars every year. The brilliant minds of Silicon Valley and Redmond Washington, are going to waste time and energy on protecting their companies instead of thinking up new products and new ways to deliver them to consumers. Dragging smaller companies into the political swamps is just the latest diversion of West's productive resources into the unproductive world of political predation. http://venitism.blogspot.com
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