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Bid rigging produced extraordinary margins: in the late 1890s the companies collected $345–420 per ton of armor (a compromise after the Russia–Bethlehem embarrassment) against production costs of perhaps $150. With that kind of money at stake, what patriot could pass up the chance to defraud his fellow citizens?
Charles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy

Yes, Apple created the iPhone and the App Store and, under current U.S. antitrust doctrine, almost certainly has the right to impose whatever taxes it wishes on third parties, including 30% on purchases and the first year of subscriptions, and completely cutting off developers from their customers. Antitrust law, though, while governed by Supreme
... See moreBen Thompson • United States v. Apple

The clear impression is that prosecutors had trawled through years of tariff filings searching for possible Standard violations, however technical. In short, it looks like harassment—an impression that is reinforced by the government’s request on retrial, after the case was thrown out on appeal, to present a separate evidential argument for each of
... See moreCharles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
The second part of Tarbell’s argument—that rebates were somehow “illegal”—is simply false. There was no law against rebates, on either the federal or state level, and they were standard practice among all carriers.* Nor were they especially “secret.” Railroads struggled to prevent disclosure of particular rebates, for obvious reasons, but freely
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