Mid Exam
Instructions:
Please answer the following questions using “bullet-point” statements.
1. Please discuss the tension between state and federal laws, especially the concept of “preemption,” and describe how it has affected the banking laws since the 1990’s, using the article “Rogue Agencies Gut State Banking Laws” and the decision in Bank of America v. City and County of San Francisco, et al. to support your discussion.
2. Please discuss the anti-trust cases against Microsoft in both the United States and Europe, noting the differences in their allegations and their outcomes. Please base your argument on the information in the lectures, your text, the video interview with Gary Reback, and the European Union’s paper on Microsoft’s anti-competitive conduct.
3. Please discuss the acquisition by Google of Admob, and the criticism of the FCC’s approval of the acquisition by those who believe it is in violation of the anti-trust laws. Please base your arguments on the information contained in your text, the lectures, and The New York Times’s article, “Google, Sure It’s Big, But Is That Bad?”
Schedule
1:
Lecture 5: State versus Federal Law
READING: Bank of America v. City and County of San Francisco;Rogue Agencies Gut State Banking Laws
2:
Lecture 6: The Rationale of Business Structures
FILM: The Corporation, Part 1 (About 1 hour)
3:
Lecture 7: The Monopoly Game
READING: European Union Paper: Microsoft: A History of Anticompetitive Behavior and Consumer Harm
FILM: The Corporation, Part 2 (Rests of hours)
4:
Lecture 8: The Trouble with Trade Restraints
READING: Cummins, Ch. 8; Google: Sure It’s Big, But Is That Bad?
FILM: Interview with Gary Reback
Links to Reading:
“Rogue Agencies Gut State Banking Laws”
Bank of America v. City and County of San Francisco
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1343285.html
European Union paper: Microsoft: A History of Anticompetitive Behavior and Consumer Harm
http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf
“Google: Sure, It’s Big. But Is That Bad?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/technology/23goog.html?pagewanted=all
Links to Film:
The Corporation
Interview with Gary Reback
