Six economists who formerly worked for the US Department of Justice (which seems to wear them out pretty fast) have flung themselves under the wheels of Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly with the filing of a friends of court brief arguing for tough controls on Microsoft. According to a report in today's New York Times, the six ask that the court casts "a wide net, looking for rules or actions that will increase competition today by lowering entry barriers."

That would seem to suggest they're arguing for strict conduct remedies that will actually stop Redmond reoffending. We're not currently in a position to bring you the substance of their arguments, as the whereabouts of any public posting of the filing is as yet unclear to us. Daniel Rubinfeld, formerly of the DoJ during the Microsoft case, however tells the NYT that he feels that during the remedies debate "some of the broad principles that we hope the judge will take into account when she makes her ruling haven't been addressed."

That list of DoJ economists in full is: Timothy Bresnahan (Clinton), Daniel Rubinfeld (Clinton), Richard Gilbert (Clinton), George Hay (Carter), Bruce Owen (Reagan) and Lawrence White (Reagan). Bush economists of either vintage seem not to have joined in. ®