Hightower Lowdown

To hear the whining of corporate bosses over the Justice Department's suit to stop Microsoft's monopolization of computer operating systems, you'd think the Clinton administration was the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt's "trust busters." But outside of this case, Clinton has been nothing but a trust builder.

In their 12 years in the White House, conglomeration-happy Ronald Reagan and George Bush looked the other way while 85,000 mergers valued at $3.5 trillion took place. But in just about half that time, the Clintonites have rubber stamped 166,000 mergers valued at nearly $10 trillion, shrinking competition in industry after industry, leaving consumers, workers, small businesses, and communities at the mercy of rising monopoly power.

Incredibly, this hands-off policy is rationalized in the name of consumers. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says that anti-trust is old hat: "As the deregulation of airlines and telecommunications demonstrates, archaic restrictions reduce choice and raise prices."

Hello? Earth to Larry . . . have you bought a plane ticket lately? Have you seen your telephone and cable bills? Thanks to your mergers and de-reg, consumer choice is a joke and prices are through the roof.