Bill Gates

Has Microsoft abused its monopoly power? Consider this question: Would Bill Gates as the CEO of an upstart software company competing against Microsoft survive? I doubt it.

MARK STALZER

Oak Park

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Re “Microsoft Is Wrongly Targeted,” Commentary, Oct. 19: William Baxter, along with other Reagan anti-regulatory extremists, allowed the the savings and loan industry to gamble and lose half-a-trillion dollars of the public’s money. I’m sure he feels our pain, but hey, it’s worth it for the ideal of an unfettered business environment.

I hate regulation and bureaucracies as much as the next guy. If Baxter has some way of explaining how 90% market share is not monopolistic I’m still listening.

MARC SADOFF

Pacific Palisades

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Re “U.S. Faces Uphill Climb in Fight With Microsoft,” Oct. 19: It seems the government is spending a lot of time trying to get Gates and Microsoft. Federal authorities would be well served to pursue the oil companies that take billions from the pockets of Americans every hour through manipulation and fraud. Anyone who watches the price of crude oil and matches it against the price of gasoline should realize that even with a 90-day flow-through factor, there is no correlation between the price of crude and the drop of gasoline prices. If the price of crude dropped 39% in the last year, gasoline should reflect that. If it did, we would be paying about 88 cents a gallon for gas right now. This rips off every American at every economic level.

LARRY ZINI

Camarillo