Silicon Valley's 'Suicide Impulse'

[Commentary] It's a measure of how far Silicon Valley has strayed from its entrepreneurial roots that a top regulator is calling on technology companies to do less lobbying and more competing.

In a letter to the editor responding to a report in this column on how Google spent $25 million lobbying to stop an antitrust case against it, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz wrote that companies should not draw the lesson that lobbying pays. Instead, he urged: "Stop! Invest your money in expansion and innovation." Chairman Leibowitz asserted in his letter, published Jan. 18, that "Google's lobbying expenses had no effect on the care, diligence or analysis of the agency's incredibly hard-working staff or the decisions reached by any of the FTC's five commissioners." Tech executives should think twice before again lobbying government to get involved in their industry.