"Crony Capitalism flourishes in an economy dominated and controlled by a Central State.
...The Central State can then protect crony-capitalist perquisites, cartels,
quasi-monopolies and financialization skimming operations of the sort
which now dominate the U.S. economy's primary profit centers.
...Since the State is a concentrator of both wealth and power,
it also concentrates the risk that ontologically accompanies concentrated power and wealth:
with such great power, the abuse, repression, exploitation and predation
which the State could unleash on its citizenry are fearsome.
This concentration of wealth and power makes the State
the primary attractor in the economy for those seeking to increase their private gain.
What better way to enforce a monopoly
than to persuade the State to limit your competition?
What better way to lower the risk of enterprise
than to persuade the State to grant its own contracts to your company?
What better way to amass a fortune
than to harness the coercive powers of the State to your own self-interest?
While $1 million buys little influence within the market,
if spent to influence State policy then it will buy more power
than $10 million spent in the marketplace.
...the collusion of private wealth and State Elites
comes to dominate the entire ecosystem.
The State’s function as the system’s immune system has been subverted by private wealth
and the State’s own extraordinary powers
have been directed to serve the self-interests of private Elites and their cronies...
Another name for the collusion of private wealth and State Elites is crony capitalism,
which has reached its apex in an economy dominated by an expansive Central State..."
Charles Hugh Smith
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