Ebay and Mr. Evil

J.H. Huebert’s entry regarding Ebay and Elliot Spitzer reminds me of just how much of a bully Spitzer (referred to “Mr. Evil,” in my presence) has become. The power that these state AGs has is enormous, and Mr. Evil is about as bad as anyone when it comes to abuse of power.

I recently reviewed The PayPal Wars for Regulation, and dealt with Mr. Evil, who also used bully-boy techniques to extort $150,000 out of PayPal while the company was trying to launch an IPO. Unfortunately, Mr. Evil has the New York Slimes firmly behind him, acting as his PR arm. Thus, we are going to be inundated with pro-Spitzer propaganda from the Slimes and other media outlets, so we had better get used to this guy.While we might get down on companies like Ebay and PayPal for giving in to someone like Mr. Evil, we have to keep in mind that these firms are going against a stacked deck. Furthermore, it is not Ebay’s job to discipline people like Mr. Evil. Unfortunately, the voters of New York and their media outlets are going to continue to loose this plague upon us.

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4:08 pm on October 16, 2005