Tyler Cowen on the Alleged Wage Suppression Scheme in Silicon Valley

There's been some consternation and indignation lately pointed towards Silicon Valley execs who may have conspired not to recruit from each others' firms.

Tyler Cowen weighs in:

"I would suggest caution in interpreting this event.  For one thing, we don’t know how effective this monopsonistic cartel turned out to be. [...] It is hard to find examples of persistently successful monopsonistic labor-buying cartels."

To me, it seems the way to think about this situation breaks down to two questions:

1. Was the law broken, irrespective of the economics of the situation?
2. Factoring in economics, should this be illegal? 

The answers to 1 and 2 (and how they interact with each other) ought to drive one's thinking on the issue.

Update 5/23/2014 - looks like they settled.