Reddit reviews Political Capitalism: How Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society)

BoydLab's post was more about executive compensation than crony capitalism. So for a separate but somewhat related post: I read a book that discusses how the greater threat to American enterprise is crony capitalism (what he calls "political capitalism") than socialism. Basically, the cycle goes 1) small government, 2) "government needs to do more!!", 3) government grows, 4) businesses see government as a tool to lead to profit, 5) candidates and businesses join forces to block competition.

I'm sure this isn't an earth-shattering revelation to anyone here. What's interesting is to think about whether this can actually be stopped, in a free Republic. Calls for more government power will always eventually win out, then business people will always angle for that government power to help them make money.

Example...one of my friends works for a bakery in Nashville. She's an amazing pastry chef, and has wanted to go out on her own for years. Whenever I push her to do so, she says "well, there are a lot of regulations, and if you're selling to the public you have to have a commercial kitchen so I couldn't just start it out of my apartment." I have no insight into Tennessee's business code, but am willing to bet that provision was added by big bakeries that were tired of small upstarts competing with them. Oh, and "public safety" to prevent small bakers from killing people with tainted cakes, of course.