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Comment by joshuaheard | Hacker News Reader

The Clinton administrations anti-trust judgment against Microsoft burst the internet bubble and sent our economy into a recession, the effects of which we are still feeling.

It also shackled Microsoft for 10 years as part of the judgment, so they have been unable to effectively compete with Google and Apple. This year, that 10 year judgment agreement ended, so expect to see more from Micrsoft.

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I've never heard this argument before.

Why was Microsoft owning the desktop and browser market so fundamental to the US economy?

They weren't. Computers and Internet became a commodity so the market was overcrowded and overhyped. Once the realization happened, the market plummeted and tons of investment and effort went down the drain.

People went batshit insane over the internet in a few years, invested tons and tons and it all collapsed.

The PC and internet fuled the productivity gains of the nineties. If you look at the timing, the stock market crashed a couple of months after the ruling came out. Up until that time, the internet was the wild west. With the Microsoft judgment, it became clear to the market that the internet would be subject to regular rules. The stock market plays off such psychological factors. Also, Microsoft was the biggest player back then so it was a blow to the entire industry. People were wondering if the interet boom was a speculative bubble, and the ruling was the pin that popped it.

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