CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence ONE MORE LAUGH One modest correction concerning Michael Barone’s excellent article on Barry Goldwater (“The Last Laugh,” June 15). Goldwater didn’t make “the Republican party...
...Furthermore, Stelzer’s concerns about the new Travelers behemoth are correct, but misplaced...
...Such issues already presented themselves with Citibank less than a decade ago...
...WILLIAM A. RUSHER SAN FRANCISCO, CA GOD, MAN, AND SWING I was fascinated by Mark Gauvreau Judge’s story on the return of swing (“Jump, Jive, and Wail,” June 8...
...But what is to be done when, and if, an aggressive behemoth the size of Travelers spins out of control and proves to be seriously wounded...
...It was that way already...
...Issues of moral hazard and financial regulation are involved...
...However, his analysis of the antitrust suit against Microsoft misses the mark for several reasons that are obvious if one views the case from the consumer’s perspective...
...By the early 1950s, before Goldwater attracted national notice, the nascent conservative movement was passionately anti-Communist, both domestically and internationally...
...Goldwater didn’t make “the Republican party solidly internationalist, committed to waging and, in time, winning the Cold War...
...Compared with the heroin-infested rave dives associated with the urban teen scene, swing clubs are a festival of dance lessons, classy music, laid-back lounge ambience, swank attire, and a code of decorum that expects good behavior and good cheer...
...Swing dancing, while bouncy and energetic, still requires a clear leader and follower...
...What good is antitrust action if the product in question does not exist by the time the trial has started because consumers have already welcomed an innovation with a significantly improved price/performance ratio...
...However, I think Judge goes a bit far in suggesting that swing dancing in and of itself can re-civilize the culture...
...He correctly states the unstated moral code of most swing clubs...
...The music has a jumpy beat that suggests good times and optimism...
...TRAVIS FELL RICHARDSON, TX BANKING ON BANKS Irwin M. Stelzer may remember the Irving Trust Company as tiny, but it was not (“A Bank Too Large?,” June 8...
...He didn’t need to...
...Rather, I think the swing renaissance simply reflects a deeper yearning in the hearts of today’s teens and twentysomethings...
...JOHN A. BECKWITH EVANSTON, IL...
...But as Internet usage increases, it is logical for customers to value integration of these products: There is a certain elegance to browsing seamlessly from one’s hard drive to file servers on the Internet...
...In other words, swing taps our desire for innocent fun and a workable set of rules...
...Robert Taft’s 1949 vote against the NATO treaty was the last gasp of Republican isolationism, and even Taft had earlier voted for both Greek- Turkish aid and the Marshall Plan...
...After the destructive moral relativism of the baby boomers and the morosely self-absorbed, parenthating angst of today’s adolescent three-chord bands, Gen Xers are looking for the structure and the fun that swing provides...
...Browsers and operating systems once were sold in separate packages, when consumer use of the Internet was in its infancy...
...Microsoft’s competitors are using their relationship with Al Gore, and the fact that their home states have more congressional clout than Washington State, to impose their will on consumers...
...Civil revival must come from the Creator rekindling in people’s hearts a desire for a civil society, of which swing is a part...
...While Microsoft warrants scrutiny for some of its marketing and contracting practices, a broad-based legal assault is unwarranted...
...In 1956 it condemned Eisenhower’s inertia when Red Army tanks rolled into Budapest, and in 1959 National Review sponsored a protest rally at Carnegie Hall over Khrushchev’s visit to the United States at Eisenhower’s invitation...
...It is true, however, that in 1952 Goldwater, as an Arizona delegate to the Chicago convention, voted for Eisenhower over Taft, no doubt partly because of foreign-policy issues...
...Eisenhower’s nomination and election guaranteed that an interventionist sentiment in the GOP would prevail, and Taft ratified the guarantee by dying in 1953 (assuming, which I doubt, that he had any remaining intention to oppose it...
...But in the 1960s we worked cheerfully to oust the “moderate” leaders of the Eastern Republican establishment...
...As long as well-run, small banks can trade at two to three times book equity, we’ll see more of them...
...Even if Stelzer had a correct understanding of the relevant product markets, trends, and power dynamics, his argument is irrelevant, because Microsoft has followed Netscape’s lead in distributing browser software for free...
...Big, ponderous, conservative institutions rarely fail...
...What assurance is there that its managerial intelligence is commensurate with its size...
...And commercial banks are not the only source of small business credit...
...Despite Stelzer’s offhand denial, the high-tech industry is unique only in that product- markets can change rapidly enough to make traditional regulatory and litigation timetables ludicrously slow...
...The real problem involves the challenge presented by huge, avowedly entrepreneurial, actively trading institutions...
...Stelzer and Klein’s argument is based on a static understanding of rapidly changing product-markets...
...Now a new institution several times larger is emerging...
...Despite Stelzer’s protestations, America already has a healthy, competitive software industry...
...Excessive government involvement will only weaken it, as it has many other domestic industries...
...Moreover, Irving didn’t disappear “long ago,” but in a hostile bid in the last decade...
...The Irving Trust, whose landmark 1930 skyscraper anchored the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, was long considered a New York moneycenter bank in august company...
...Furthermore, the ’30s and ’40s duds clearly demarcate male from female in swing clubs—an open question in many other dance clubs...
...A great many conservatives of that day, myself included, preferred Eisenhower...
...The antitrust action is a better example of abuse of political power by Netscape, Sun, Oracle, and the like than of abuse of market power by Microsoft...
...Bundling a few megabytes of browser software (market price = $0) with a 100+ megabyte operating system on 8 gigabyte hard drives is no real burden to customers who choose to download Netscape instead of activating the browser capabilities of Windows 98...
...There has been a growing stream of newly chartered banks...
...PAUL J. ISAAC NEW YORK, NY MICROSOFT’S MORASS Irwin M. Stelzer may be correct in describing Joel Klein as reasonable in comparison to most Clinton attor neys (“Microsoft’s Formidable Foe,” June 15...
Vol. 3 • June 1998 • No. 41
