Greedy Goblin

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The fall of crony capitalism

Crony capitalism is a term describing an economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between business people and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, or other forms of state interventionism.

I'm a strict believer of free market, but hate pure socialism less than crony capitalism. Not only the latter is more wasteful due to the coverup processes and create more unjust inequalities, but it makes uninformed people turn on capitalism itself.

In 2008 the free market made its verdict: Wall Street worth nothing. The big banks were all bankrupt due to hilariously dumb strategies (let's give home loans to people without income, what can go wrong). But they were saved by their corrupted politicians on leash. The money came by taxing the successful businesses and their employees who created real value. After 2010 we should have seen an unmatched GDP growth in the sectors that actually create value for the people. Instead we saw Wall Street rise again and the bankers gain millions of bonuses despite they had less business sense than a Clintonite pundit. And of course we had a record slow rebound. What would you expect if productive businesses are taxed to death to support non competitive ones just because they paid $250K per speech to some insider?

The USA, once beacon of free trade became a worse hive of crony capitalism than the ex-Soviet "istans". The pay-to-play schemes permeated the whole elite, from top Senators to the lowest of journalists. How bad it was? This bad:

Then came a businessman. He had no political background, barely any support, no "experience", not even a likable personality. All he had was a message of capitalism by the laws. And his own money earned by offering services to people on the free market. This was a historic election. The whole crony establishment got all hands on deck with media literally controlled by the DNC, with paid thugs attacking his rallies, with pollsters releasing fake polls to sow despair and distrust in his campaign, with Ryan-Reps jumping ship, 99% of foreign leaders openly endorsing Clinton (my PM was the first in-office leader to endorse and first to congratulate Trump), being outspent 3:1 and practically all celebrities campaigning against him. Yet, against all odds, he won. And didn't just win by an inch. Considering the Dukakis level electoral college of Dems, the Reps having the Congress and the Senate, it's a mandate rivaling Reagan's.

The only support he got was the only support he needed: the one from the GDP producing small business owners and employees. The election was decided not in the traditional "battleground states" but in the "safe democrat" Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In the rust belt, where jobs were lost because money was redirected from productive industries to the Wall Street wolves and because of the competition of criminals who exploited slave work of illegal aliens.

I endorsed him based on his pro-peace ideas. A capitalist doesn't initiate force as he believes in the cooperation of free men. Fanatics initiate violence, like Clinton of the Liberal Church. He pledged this pro-peace stance in his victory speech "we will get along with all other nations who are willing to get along with us". But this isn't what resonated with most of the voters, but his economy message. For the better!

Go Mr President, make your country great again and the World safe again!


PS: This win is also a slap on the face of that human garbage Mittani who betrayed his dead "friend" and his family.

PS2: want to enjoy the guilty pleasure of tears? Forget minerbumping.com. Go to Huffington post!

PS3: lot of musicians demanded Trump to don't use their music. More musicians tweeted despair about the election. Who will play on the inauguration I wonder? Well, I knew of one star who didn't endorse Clinton. And one with a perfect song for this president-elect. Every single line is perfect for him. Aaand singing it on inauguration would be the ultimate f you for Katy Perry.

PS4: Oh the irony!

27 comments:

Azuriel said...

I'm not sure how you can conclude crony capitalism is dead. How many incumbents won their races on Tuesday? How many Washington insiders and lobbyists will be high-ranking officials in Trump's cabinet? And what do you imagine the odds are that there will be convenient legislation personally benefiting Trump's companies?

Seriously, you have to be trolling. "Free market?" That is the opposite of what Trump is presenting.

Smokeman said...

The problem with bastions of power like Washington DC is that they're fueled by power. Obvious evidence... Clinton got 93% of the vote. That is stunning. 93%! 93% of the people in Washington DC said "Clinton is an insider, and the insiders are paying us hard. I'm voting Clinton!

I used to live in Fairfax, VA, just outside of the beltway of Washington DC. The place was stupid expensive, my property taxes were 7000 dollars a year and I had to pay 1000 dollars a year JUST TO REGISTER MY PERSONAL VEHICLE. It's wack. Why? Because money flows into centers of power like ... well, like... You know what? You make the comparison. All of them are unflattering. Sure, the roads are great.. and the government center is a nice building (We called the government building in Fairfax the "Taj Mahal" it was so damn big.

Literally. I shit you not:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_County_Government_Center

From the Wiki:
"Even before the sprawling complex was completed, it had been dubbed the "Taj Mahal" by its critics and opponents.[14][15] The name was applied due to the intent to install features that were perceived as luxuries, including a $400,000 12-story steel obelisk (later cancelled), a custom-built granite conference table, Brazilian mahogany paneling, and private elevators for the members of the Board of Supervisors during a time of constrained budgets due to the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s."

Even without the more opulent features? The place is a beast. Nothing says "You're getting screwed by government" than having to go to the Taj Mahal to pay your 1000 dollar personal property taxes for your vehicle.

Been there. Done that. Did not like it.

Unknown said...

Mega Ditto Gevlon.

The tears of those who deplore independence and the little guy working hard to make something of them self are delicious indeed. The angst of the hyper-hypocritical liberals who just lost power (on both sides of the major parties) is a delight to many people like myself.

Despite what the mostly white privileged left in America will claim and who in turn practice the most deplorable things of categorizing people by their parentage and skin color while doing everything they can to make money at the expense of other people: Free-markets, liberty, rule of law, privacy, and self-determination (to name a few ideas and ideals) are not bound to the color of one's skin or the parentage of the person

Glad to see you are not fooled by media as much as others across the pond.

Anonymous said...

Your analysis of DC voters is overly simplistic. Nearly half (46%) of DC residents are African-American, and their median household income is below the national figure. DC itself is not especially large in terms of territory or population; many of the rich lobbyists live elsewhere and merely *commute* to DC in order to do their jobs.

When you see the majority of DC residents voting "D", it's misleading to imagine that this is a huge contingent of lobbyists or crony-capitalists supporting their corrupt candidate. It's largely poor black folks - who either distrust Republicans in general, or consider their policies to be pernicious (e.g. government shutdowns, budget reductions, and federal hiring freezes - all of which have unpleasant consequences for the local economy).

Because of weirdness in the US Constitution, the national legislature can override civic policies decided by the elected Mayor and city council of DC. Republicans in Congression have recently used this power to meddle in local issues (e.g. gun laws, drug decriminalization) as a bargaining chip in national-level negotiations. Obviously, DC locals resent such interference.


> The money came by taxing the successful businesses and their employees who created real value.

Nitpick: the fiscal element of the bailout was relatively small. Most of the money was delivered via non-conventional monetary measures. The bailout could not have happened without the existence of productive firms elsewhere in the economy, and there was a huge amount of cronyism involved ... but it's somewhat inaccurate to describe it as "taxation".

Gevlon said...

@Azuriel: where did I "conclude" anything? Trump is not even in office, he didn't do anything. What I welcome here is the pure CHANCE that something happen. That the crony system is not all-powerful, they can't stop an outsider, even if they combine their power.

@Smokeman: this is the essence of crony capitalism. In socialism they can simply take the money. In crony capitalism they have to "buy" something for the state which is overpriced and pointless so they get the money as profit. For every dollar stolen, another 2 is wasted building Taj Mahal. Such stories are everywhere. We in Hungary have this beauty: http://img7.indafoto.hu/2/7/24087_eee75242a3b87751a71bfb6ebce5cad0/9026819_6fe75be4a8170b730ad3e757c6729397_xl.jpg A 200 feet high, 2 miles long bridge built from $200M over FLAT LAND.

@S Riojas: most people in Europe are not fooled. The media - just like in the US - is fully in crony control and try to guilt-trip everyone into voting for those who love immigrants and multiculturality. It doesn't work recently. The party of Merkel, the Clinton of EU got 25% on the last state election of Germany.

@Anon: and welfare leeches living on the coins tossed by the elite for their votes is somewhat not the signal of crony capitalism and/or oligarchic government?

Andru said...

Yes, a businessman benefiting from crony capitalism is an outsider that will stop it.

Gevlon said...

@Andru: Trum did NOT benefit from crony capitalism. He was not a government contractor, he did not build F-35 or Zumwald, he did not receive bailout. He rented out flats on the free market and sold TV shows to advertisers. And he tried and failed to have a university, airline and casinos. None of these had anything to do with any government.

nightgerbil said...

That bridge wow: what was the point of that? I mean they must have had an official reason for doing it. I'd like to know more can you fill me in please?

Unknown said...

WTF? Trump used illegal aliens as workers for many of his building projects and then flat out refused to pay them and threatened them when they tried to sue him for the money. He is as much a crony capitalist as the rest of that bunch. He deliberately underfinanced some of his companies in order to profit from their lossses due to a incoherent tax law system...

Declaring Trump to be sort of a "true capitalist" is plain dumb and untrue!

While I agree that he will probably start less wars than Hillary, I do not think that anything will get better in the US economy. He said that national debth would never be a problem as there will always be enough money been printed as would be necessary to keep the system running...

He actually received a bailout in the ninties when all his cardhouse imperium was about to crumble down... He was bailed out by the same banks that needed to get bailed out later... Maybe you could argue that this is the reason banks should fail and not get bailed out since they make poor decisions, but then this would have been the end of Trump...

So, please, do a thorough research before posting such nonsense....

And most Europeans do not consider Orban to be a role model for democracy... So him supporting Trump does not really mean anything...

Yaggle said...

I hope you are right. He will be under a lot of pressure, even from his own party, to change or cancel his campaign promises. If he is the type of president you describe, I will be glad. But I am always cynical of politicians, they let us down many times before. We will see.

Gevlon said...

@Nightgerbil: you see the village on the top right corner of the photo? It was in the way of the road. So they were "forced" to bring it up to the top of the ONLY HILL IN 10 MILES and to do that, they needed this bridge. Of course just buying every house in the village for 10x market price would have been much cheaper. The bridge became a symbol of corruption until it was beaten by this tower: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/34292857 yes, you see it right, it's about 15 inches high and cost $200K.

@99smite: nothing you mentioned is crony capitalism. Cheating freely joining business partners is just enterpreneurship. You are free to look up his reputation and not trading with him. These guys choose freely to partner with him. Their problem. Crony capitalism is when you are forced to partner with him by the bribed government.

Anonymous said...

I was for trump winning too because it change a lot of things. But we all need to take his promisses with a with a grain of salt. 1/ I never seen a politician fulfill all his promisses 2/ I bet Trump isn't as white as you paint him business-side (Although I agree that he is probably not sleeping with wall street like Cliton is... was)

The victory was very close on the popular vote, Cliton was .2% ahead, doesn't sounds like much but in a country like mine Trump would not have been president. Of course this is something they have in mind when they do their campaign, but the electoral college is a bad democratic mean imo.

I'm really curious to see what his first moves will be in January. Then we can judge on his actions as a president.

Anonymous said...

What ever comes with Trump. I mean this either way, it can go wrong or it can go right. He won! with "Fuck your feelings" instead of the safespace triggered idiots who sincerely believe deeply "Feelings > facts". His victory is a fact now.

Two things this victory stands for me (not from the US).
1) Ruthless PR campaign works! Do not neglect your marketing! Frame it, own it and convince everybody about it, profit from it. The execution was grand and his team really performed a miracle. Learn from it!
2) All these illogical SJW people got their asses kicked. Their tears are worth it, they got kicked at their hight of power. I really hope their reign of tyranny stops with this defeat. Even if the gates of hell open hereafter. I rather die knowing the western freedom prevailed as opposed to I'm getting stabbed in the street by a SJW mob because I simply was just there as a white cis male minding my own damn business.

Anonymous said...

Don't get hopes too high. The congress is still corrupted, and half of his own party hate him and see him as an infiltrator. He is going to be frustrated at every turn. The wall, veteran care and so on will pass easily. Stuff like ripping up trade deals and donor and fixed terms, not a chance.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure this post is trolling but just in case anyone is actually fooled:

Just look at the stocks that popped on election day. Coal and private prisons. Private prisons is especially telling as it is literally an industry built 100% on crony capitalism. It can't exist without it.

Samus said...

DC has voted more than 85% Democrat in every election. Are you claiming ALL Republican candidates have been outsiders, just like Trump?

Gevlon said...

@Samus: no, I'm claiming that every Democrat (except Sanders) is a crony capitalist and cronier than his republican opponent.

Which leads me to a question: do you know where can I find the DC Dem pre-election (Clinton vs Sanders)?

Smokeman said...

"Anonymous said...

Don't get hopes too high. The congress is still corrupted, and half of his own party hate him and see him as an infiltrator. He is going to be frustrated at every turn. The wall, veteran care and so on will pass easily. Stuff like ripping up trade deals and donor and fixed terms, not a chance."

That's fine! It's a start. No one thought it would all be easy and roses from this point on, now we have to start working of getting the insiders out of Congress one clown at a time. The message to Congress, and the liberals in general, is "You can't get away with using people as human shields anymore."

Andru said...

@anon

"as opposed to I'm getting stabbed in the street by a SJW mob because I simply was just there as a white cis male minding my own damn business."

And you are claiming that SJWs are paranoid about "the patriarchy" hurting them at every turn. Perhaps a small dose of looking in the mirror and/or readig the definition of 'irony' is in order.

Samus said...

@Gevlon

So you are saying if the election had been Sanders vs Jeb Bush, you think DC would have gone 90% to Bush?

Samus said...

"do you know where can I find the DC Dem pre-election (Clinton vs Sanders)?"

All the primary results can be found here: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/democratic_vote_count.html

Although I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of who actually lives in DC. The DC area is only 40% white, mostly poor and black. All of the insiders you are talking about live outside of the DC area. Look at this map:

http://www.city-data.com/income/income-Washington-District-of-Columbia.html

Anything outside of the square (including nearly all the wealthy areas) is in either Maryland or Virginia. DC has had a large crime problem, and nearly all the wealthy people moved out to the suburbs. There is no real reason you need to live in the DC area to be an insider or crony, Wall Street being the most obvious example.

There is certainly no denying that Clinton is the biggest insider to run in a long time, although I heavily dispute that George W Bush was "less of an insider" than either of his opponents, or that Obama was "more of an insider" than his opponents in any meaningful way. From the point of view of Sanders or Trump, they are all about the same.

Gevlon said...

@Samus: your link says District of Columbia June 14 75,223 Clinton 20,137 Sanders.
That's kind of proves my point.

Samus said...

"That's kind of proves my point."

You kind of ignored mine. Those people are not insiders, the insiders don't live in the actual DC area. They are mostly African American, who voted overwhelmingly for Clinton in all other states (and always overwhelmingly vote Democrat in the general election). Clinton winning the south in the primary was pretty much the reason she beat Sanders.

I again ask, if the election had been Sanders vs Jeb Bush, do you think DC would have gone 90% to Bush?

Gevlon said...

Yes, I believe that. Even if they are lowly insiders, they ARE insiders. They are the gardeners, the prostitutes, the drug dealers, the servants of the DC elite. It's a bizarre form of trickle-down economics. I understand it's hard to see the "insider" in the crack whore, but she does exactly what the Senator does: sucks cocks for support.

Samus said...

Go to any primarily black inner city area in the US, and you will see 85%+ margins for Clinton. The vote in DC is nothing special given the demographics. To pretend that poor inner city black people are the same "insiders" as Wall Street brokers is not something anyone but Gevlon would argue.

You are now missing your own point, that she is an insider taking money from lobbyists and cronies in return for influence. None of those poor black people are giving her a dime, or seeing any of her political influence (not directly, the same way Wall Street insiders do). More importantly, voters hate her for her ties to REAL insiders, not because she supports black people.

YOU may see them as the same, but your point was about the voters, correct?

Anonymous said...

Trump is just cutting out the crony middleman. He has stated he wants to use nukes. He is happy to abuse laws (four bankruptcies) and trust (multiple bank bailouts), all to further his own selfish wealth.

He didn't even win by an inch, that'd be far to generous. He won because of an awful voting system.

Unknown said...

It is very possible Trump will end up impeached by the very party that put him in the White House.

Step #1: Trump does something that can get him impeached (likelyhood is pretty high, something stupid like creating a blind trust for his businesses with his children at the head)

Step #2: Under the howlings and thrust of rabid democrats, GOP will facilitate impeachment process and make sure it happens

Step #3: Mike Pence becomes president, GOP is fully in control again, and all the #DrainTheSwamp promises are now out of the window

A con man could still be conned by the system...