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EU Competition Committee – Time for another tea party

I suspect that, at the heart of Intel’s terrible offense of paying for buying decisions in their favor, are a bunch of folks they hired on the ground in Europe who know that the best way to get something decided in your favor in a timely way in the EU is to pay an expediting fee.  Just buy the decision.  Sure this is technically against the rules, but gas is expensive there, and so are mistresses, and clothes for that matter.  There is a culture of skullduggery ages old, and the EU knows it, and has learned that they can use it to raise revenue for their bloated bureaucracy.

Is it a coincidence that Intel is getting fined $1.3 billion right when the EU is having trouble paying its expenses?  Talk about taxation without representation.  I wouldn’t blame Intel a bit if they sent them confederate dollars, or went over there and dumped chips in the English Channel.  Except then they would have to pay a another $1.3 billion fine, this time for polluting…