Amazon Loves Government

[Commentary] Amazon can claim a consumer interest in lower prices. But prices aren't the only measure of consumer benefit, especially if lower prices discourage new investment in quality and innovation and consumer choice.

Publishers are literary venture capital firms that finance writing and research that may not pay off for years if it ever does. They deserve some influence over how intellectual property is distributed. The larger point is that the executive and judicial branches intervened to aid Amazon, a quasi-monopolist incumbent at a crucial competitive juncture amid the shift to digital from print, preventing a market resolution. Apple is appealing Judge Cote's ruling as a matter of antitrust law, and the outcome is by no means clear. What is clear is that Amazon ought to stop claiming to be a tribune of the market when its chief patron is government.