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March 3, 2020|Crony Capitalism, Economic Profit, Labor Unions, Normal Profit

Crony Capitalism & the Case for Labor Unions

by James R. Rogers|

Union workers from IBEW Local 613 marching in the Martin Luther King, Jr Day parade in Atlanta, Georgia on January 20, 2020 (John Pryor/Shutterstock.com).
We don't live in a classically liberal economy, so why should we critique labor unions as if we do?

January 23, 2019|Crony Capitalism, Free Markets, rent-seeking, Tucker Carlson

The Harder Question Tucker Carlson Raises for Conservatives

by James R. Rogers|

Tucker Carlson on stage at Politicon 2018 at the LA Convention Center on October 21, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: The Photo Access/Alamy Live News
One can concede the ills Carlson identifies without conceding that the “free market” caused those ills.

December 17, 2018|Crony Capitalism, judicial authority, monopoly power, special legislation

Limiting Monopoly Power Is Harder Than It Looks

by James R. Rogers|

United States Patent and Trademark Office, Arlington, Virginia (Mark Van Scyoc / Shutterstock.com).
Government grants monopoly power all the time, but how can we determine when it's good, and when it's bad?

April 4, 2018|bankruptcy law, coal, Crony Capitalism, Donald Trump, ethnics preferences, Republican Party, unions

Classical Liberalism Does Not Play Favorites

by John O. McGinnis|

A rule of law that is worthy of the name does not play favorites, and this insight remains one of the highest ideals of classical liberalism.

November 28, 2016|Crony Capitalism, Free Markets, Pareto outcome, Prisoner's dilemma, Protectionism

Labor, Capital, and the Rigged Economy

by James R. Rogers|

No one likes being in a prisoners’ dilemma. The tragedy of the prisoners’ dilemma, as it were, is that all the players in the game can see the cooperative, Pareto-superior outcome, but they can’t reach it, at least not without changing the game. They can’t reach it even though it’s right there, seemingly within grasp, and even though they all agree they’d all be better off if they did reach it.

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November 28, 2016|Adam Ferguson, Central Intelligence Agency, Crony Capitalism, Self-Government

Beauty and the Beast

by Graham McAleer|

(Photo: Clearista/Facebook)

Skincential Sciences is a small company and something of a curiosity: a significant portion of its capital comes from In-Q-Tel, the investment fund of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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November 21, 2016|Administrative State, Crony Capitalism, Substantive Due Process

How Do You Solve Crony Capitalism?

by James R. Rogers|

“Crony capitalism” is the idea that politically well-connected owners of productive factors – land, labor, capital, entrepreneurial skill – can use the government’s coercive power to limit competition and increase their return on those factors. More generally, it’s the use of the coercive powers of the state to redistribute resources to specific groups and their associates.

As Gordon Tullock was fond of pointing out, while government protection is not a factor of production, it can be a factor of profit.

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August 24, 2016|Alex Cuadros, Brazil, Claudio Veliz, Crony Capitalism, Getulio Vargas, Inacio Lula da Silva, Partido dos Trabalhadores, The New World of the Gothic Fox

Capitalism: The Case of Brazil

by Lauren Weiner|

With the closing ceremonies over, we can breathe a sigh of relief about Rio. The worst snafus of the Olympics were the algae in the diving pools and vandalism by a mendacious American swimmer. As with the Sochi games, the press ran scary pre-competition reports of substandard conditions. In the event, the Russian and the Brazilian just-in-time habits of organizing an international spectacle turned out to be good enough to get by.

There was extra nervousness with Brazil, a country in the midst of economic and political turmoil that claimed the presidency of the recently impeached Dilma Rousseff. According to Moody’s, the credit rating agency, in the wake of the 2016 summer games, the city of Rio de Janeiro gained by its new infrastructure and transportation projects but Brazil will “wake up once again to its deepening recession.”

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November 3, 2015|Crony Capitalism, Joseph P. Kennedy, Republican Party, Ruling Class, The Tea Party

RINO-plasty

by Richard Samuelson|

The GOP needs more than cosmetic surgery. It’s either showing signs of great health or is in crisis, or perhaps a little of both. The party controls both houses of Congress and is hitting historic highs in governorships and state legislatures. An array of bright, young, plausible Republican Presidents campaigns for the Oval Office—a far cry from 2012, when former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won largely because he seemed to be the only person who was truly up to the job.

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December 11, 2014|Crony Capitalism, Tax Harmonization

Towards a Global Dystopia

by Hans Eicholz|

Global community

There is a great and dangerous Trust seeking to form globally. Like any monopoly in days past, or OPEC now, its aim is profit. But its means are far more sinister, and potentially far more effective, than anything ever investigated by the Pujo Committee.

Rather than merely raising revenues on some good or service, this Trust will follow you wherever you might run. Nothing like it has been seen since the days of the fugitive slave acts. It is more controlling than when medieval lords bound their serfs to their estates, or the Roman latifundia forced Romans back to the land. The idea: To attach a uniform worldwide rate upon the surplus of your productive endeavors for the benefit of its members.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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