MATTHEW MITCHELL: Beyond Bailouts: What Is Cronyism?

Related: Timothy Carney: Building The Free-Market Case Against Big Business. “The research Mitchell brings together helps show why government-granted privilege is so important to big business and so costly to the rest of society. In one key finding, he highlights research indicating that free markets, with fewer barriers to entry and fewer bailouts to prop up failed giants, make it harder for dominant businesses to maintain dominance. . . . Big business wants safety, but big-business safety hurts the rest of the economy. Disdain for bailouts and corporate welfare has resided primarily in the populist corners of the Left and Right. But the scholarly case against systemic privilege is strong and growing, too. The subsidy sucklers, bailout barons and regulatory freeloaders may soon face a challenge on a broad political front.”