Chapter 8. Capturing the Regulations

Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929

Tags: Big Government, Bureaucracy and Regulation, Cronyism and Corporatism

09/16/2026 Patrick Newman

The Federal Trade Commission’s first chairman institutionalized “advance advice” and uniform cost accounting, letting businessmen define what counted as unfair competition and making it harder to sell below a given margin. Patrick Newman then tracks the reversal as Wilson appointed opponents of big business, and the recapture under Harding and Coolidge, when the commission enforced cartel agreements and Hoover’s Commerce Department added subsidies and patent restrictions.

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