Corporate Welfare

The fight against lab-grown meat has picked up considerable steam over the past year, with multiple states now prohibiting its manufacture, sale, and distribution.

While this page has covered rail boondoggles in California and elsewhere, we also look at Seattle, which looked at building a monorail system, but then later wisely back off, saving the city‘s taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars of future taxes.

William Nordhaus coined the term “political business cycle” a half-century ago. The idea was that government authorities, particularly the central bank, would manipulate the economy to correspond with election cycles, a practice that continues to this day.

These subsidies exemplify crony capitalism. The Austrian School of economics defines any subsidy as government intervention in the functioning of the economy.

William Nordhaus coined the term “Political Business Cycle” a half-century ago. The idea was that government authorities, particularly the central bank, would manipulate the economy to correspond with election cycles, a practice that continues to this day.

People like to believe that national defense is outside of economic analysis, but the reality is that laws of economics are immutable and universal. A case in point is the development of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet.

Although he has temporarily suspended his threatened tariffs, President Trump‘s demands for “fair trade” make no sense economically speaking. Trump‘s demands of Vietnam alone are beyond head-scratching.

American history classes typically teach that the original transcontinental railroad was a major triumph. What they don‘t say is that it was a product of corporate welfare that created economic problems later on.

President Andrew Johnson, who is best known for being the first president to be impeached, vetoed protectionist legislation that looked to raise tariffs on imported copper. Congress overrode his veto, but his free-trade message is just as relevant today as it was in 1869.

Since the financial crisis, industrial policy has experienced a renaissance in the Western world. Government programs are launched, then large pools of subsidies, targeted R&D funds, and cheap loans are made available for corporations, opening opportunities for cronyism.