…an interesting piece here.
7 thoughts on ““Green Energy,” Crony Capitalism, and Nicholas Nickleby”
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Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago School economists and fellow travelers.
…an interesting piece here.
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David, there’s a problem with your link.
Fixed…thanks!
Interesting piece, but Shannon Love pretty much blew up the myth of the Great Railroad Land Giveaway:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/25289.html
The actions of the city government of Atlanta, in handing all vending on public property to a single company, bear a nontrivial resemblance to the muffin and crumpet operation of which Dickens wrote.
There as always been some “crony capitalism” as long as there have been governments. But with the spending this govt has been doing the problem has become accentuated.
Look at defense contracts. The Navy, because of their good experience with Grumman aircraft (they were known as the “Grumman Iron Works” ) – always favored Grumman when they needed a new plane. Would that be considered crony capitalism?
I suppose that could be differentiated from , say, making a nice political contribution to getting a nice 500 million loan.
Bill, for any contract there exist -theoretically – very detailed and transparent procedure of bidding. In private business “cronies” also happen, even when bidding requirements are followed to a “t”. There are several requirements to bidding companies before the bidding process starts that serve to filter out undesirables, from Owner’s point of view -the companies with insufficient insurance, those with less experience with similar projects, those with complains on their licenses or absent/fraudulent references. When government is in the role of the Owner, though, there appears whole different set of barriers, f.i. a Co has to be “shortlisted” before they are allowed to bid. Which in practice means lobbying of the most shameless kind. [I am trying to use neutral words here, you’d notice]
Douglas also built a lot of Navy planes. The famous SBD, the A3D and A4D when I worked for the company. McCain was flying an A4D when he was shot down.