NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE FAILURE – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:   The Washington Post, not known for exposing liberal failure, has a fine piece today on the relentless attacks by European regulators on American tech firms.  Since Europe is failing in pretty much every area, why not bring failure to its next logical level, going after success?

I mean, we have a president who disparages success, so that should give the Europeans even more encouragement.  From WaPo:

BRUSSELS — Europe may be a financial disaster and a faded military force, but in at least one arena it has emerged as champ: Regulators here are challenging the power of America’s technology titans. And they are winning.

Google is most squarely in the crosshairs as its officials negotiate furiously in hopes of avoiding a $4 billion fine and a formal ruling that it has abused its dominance in the search market to hurt rivals across a range of industries. A deal could be days away.

Facebook, Apple and Microsoft also have faced serious scrutiny from European regulators in the past year. And even if Google succeeds in settling the sprawling antitrust case here, it is facing investigations into its new privacy policy and its Android operating system for phones and tablets.

Many of these issues, including the antitrust case against Google, also have been investigated by American regulators. But the laws here are stricter, the fines bigger and the courts more supportive of aggressive government action — to the point that many experts say the legal landscape of the technology industry is being shaped more profoundly here than in the United States.

“The pipeline is packed with these cases,” said Nicolas Petit, a professor at Belgium’s University of Liege Law School who watches the technology industry closely.

Whether Google gets labeled a monopolist is largely in the hands of Joaquin Almunia, a former Spanish labor leader and onetime Socialist candidate for prime minister who is the European Union’s top antitrust enforcer.

COMMENT:  Wow.  Is that ever encouraging.  A former Spanish labor leader and onetime Socialist candidate for prime minister.  I'll bet he's got an autographed copy of one of Barack Obama's books.  And a cassette of his speeches, like the cassette Obama gave to Queen Elizabeth. 

I get the feeling that Europe is a lost cause, and now it's trying to make us a lost cause.  I have to believe we will, once Obama departs the political scene, save ourselves.

July 23, 2012