Currently in Power – The Google Administration

[Geee]

Human Events:

There’s an old military pilot adage – believed to have been born during World War II.

 

“When you’re taking flak, you’re right over the target.”

 

Last week, the Wall Street Journal offered up:

 

Google Makes Most of Close Ties to White House

 

Search giant averages a White House meeting a week during Obama administration.

One meeting a week – for six years. That’s a lot. What kinds of things would they discuss?

 

As the federal government was wrapping up its antitrust investigation of Google Inc., company executives had a flurry of meetings with top officials at the White House and Federal Trade Commission, the agency running the probe.

 

Google co-founder Larry Page met with FTC officials to discuss settlement talks, according to visitor logs and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt met with Pete Rouse, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, in the White House….

 

Soon afterward, the FTC closed its investigation after Google agreed to make voluntary changes to its business practices.

[Geee]

Google Has No Power Over Consumers Without Government Help

 

Rent Seeking: The weekend story written to upset us all was the tale of Google having too much power. What should infuriate, however, is not a company's market share or size — it's government protection of, and favoritism for, some businesses.

 

In its Saturday edition, the New York Post published an article headlined "Google controls what we buy, the news we read — and Obama's policies." Despite the headline, there wasn't much written about how Google controls what we buy or read. But writer Kyle Smith did provide a good look into Google's tight relationship with the administration.

 

"A former Google officer is the president's chief technology adviser," he wrote. "Google employees contributed more to President Obama's re-election than did employees of any other company except Microsoft.

 

"Google lobbyists met with Obama White House officials 230 times. By comparison, lobbyists from rival Comcast have been admitted to the inner sanctum a mere 20 or so times in the same period."

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/033115-745964-companies-seek-political-favor-from-government.htm

[Valin]

On A Related note.