Whatever else it may be, Microsoft is a profit-maximising monster and that, as Mr Schmalensee would say, is precisely the point.

ECONOMIST: Big friendly giant | The

In his written testimony, Mr Schmalensee is at pains to insist that the Justice Department's case against Microsoft does not turn on the question whether the firm is a monopoly in the operating-systems market.

ECONOMIST: Big friendly giant | The

By itself (as Mr Schmalensee certainly knows) it does not in fact prove that Microsoft has no monopoly power, or even that, if it has such power, it is choosing for some reason not to exercise it.

ECONOMIST: Big friendly giant | The