Do the big tech companies — and those of us who enjoy their myriad innovations — owe a big “thank you” to the federal government for breaking up Microsoft? Bloomberg Businessweek writer Joe Nocera seems to think so. In his Oct. 24, 2019, article — The Great Antitrust Awakening Can’t Be Stopped — Nocera provides a brief history of the government’s willingness to use the “most extreme measure in the antitrust toolbox” — to break up companies: litigation. He discusses the failed attempt to break up IBM Corp. and the consolidation of the airline, pharmaceutical, and consumer banking industries. Even soybean competition is shrinking, he points out. Nocera turns to the big players currently on the anticompetition hot-seat — Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google — and notes those who want them busted up. Worth reading.