Cronyism and Corporatism

A defunct dinner club, merged into a foreign policy establishment.

 A shaky railroad empire—and then a war that rescued it.

Who actually collected the $40 million for the Panama Canal?

Grover Cleveland’s cabinet read like a Morgan client list.

Manufacturers can choose the free market. Bankers rarely do.

Why both left and right flinch from naming the corporate state.

Vail recognized that market competition and “regulation and control are inconsistent with each other, and cannot be had at the same time.” Obviously, Vail favored the latter.

Trump has made his family billions by courting foreign and corporate money and accepting extravagant gifts while in office. But he didn’t bring self-enrichment to Washington, he simply made it much harder to ignore.

Politicians sell business regulation as benefiting consumers. In reality, as we saw from airline regulation, the system creates cartels that shut out consumers and benefit regulated businesses.

Dr. Patrick Newman speaks to Bob about his new book, which reviews how big business built the regulatory state, the Fed, and cartels like the AMA, all justified in the name of the "public interest."