Googling ‘innovation’

[Commentary] President Barack Obama has announced a new government initiative to promote economic innovation. In other news, the Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into the practices of Silicon Valley’s uber-innovator, Google. Note to the Administration: If you want to promote innovation, stop prosecuting it.

Here’s the nut: consumers gain when Google innovates, and rivals lose. The clucking of disgruntled companies is the soundtrack of creative destruction. Charlie Munger, the vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway, offers a reality check: “We need a simple, improvement-friendly rule that a new feature is always a permissible improvement if there is any plausible argument whatever that product users are in some way better off.” If the Obama Administration truly wants innovation, it ought to encourage more of what they are drinking in Omaha, and less of the trouble brewing in Washington, DC.