By Stephen Moore

Google is one of America’s most successful, profitable and dynamic companies of the 21st century – and arguably over the entire span of U.S. history. It has delivered costless information and unleashed innovation that has led to extraordinary benefits for the U.S. economy, U.S. investors, and U.S. consumers. One study by economists Erik Brynjolfsson of Stanford University and Avinash Collis of the University of Texas estimated several years ago that
the median U.S. user values search engines at $17,530 per year. That number is substantially higher today.

But a recent U.S. District Court ruling has charged the company with violating antitrust statutes. Now, the Biden Justice Department – and others – have put forward a collection of proposals that are designed to remedy the alleged harms. These could lead to the breakup of Google or remedies such as requiring the company to split off Android, Chrome or other parallel services Google provides. These cease-and-desist orders will NOT help consumers and will only weaken a company that constantly lowers costs to consumers and adds many hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth to American shareholders and retirees. Americans OWN Google.

The net effect of these proposals would be to kneecap Google in ways that would hamstring the company, harm American consumers, and undermine the competitive foundations of the U.S. economy.