Cronyism and Corporatism

Creation of lab grown meat does not entail the prohibition of other meats, rather an opportunity for market competition and more options for willing consumers.

By trying to protect dairy farmers and raise their incomes, the government created a massive cheese surplus, then gave it away, thus harming the farmers they were trying to support.

By trying to protect dairy farmers and raise their incomes, the government created a massive cheese surplus, then gave it away, thus harming the farmers they were trying to support.

As politics come to dominate more of our lives and young generations grow righteously disillusioned with a system designed to rip them off, we’re likely to see more violence and chaos. It’s a bad path we’re on. But there is a better one.

The Trump administration’s recent moves to take equity positions in Intel and MP Materials undermines the free market system and will create economic harm. 

Like the Happy Days program that could not be saved by Fonzie’s waterskiing heroics, Intel will be made even weaker in the aftermath of its equity deal with the Trump administration.

Profits and losses play an important role in a free market system. However, as government intervenes to protect politically-connected firms from losses, the entire market becomes distorted and less reliable.

President Trump has deployed naval vessels off the coast of Venezuela, citing its escalation of the war on drugs. However, the true motivation for Washington’s involvement in the region is more likely related to disputed oil claims affecting well-connected energy companies.

The federal government taking an ownership stake in Intel is neither a promising new approach to governance nor an unprecedented leap into economic fascism. It’s simply Trump embracing the corrupt status quo he ran against with a superficial rebrand.

Tom DiLorenzo reviews Patrick Newman's Cronyism: Liberty Versus Power in Early America, 1607–1849. The book posits that early American history is best understood as a struggle between mercantilist elites seeking to plunder the people and libertarians advocating economic freedom.