Lotta Moberg, co-author of the Mercatus report, says crony behavior pays off for politicians … literally.“As cronyism grows, the benefits that policymakers get from crony relations become increasingly lucrative, which creates a problem of adverse incentives.
The multibillion-dollar duopoly game known as “economic development” is steadily shifting wealth from taxpayers to large corporations, state by state.
Democrat and Republican politicians bargain with “targeting investments” that purport to pick “winning” companies. Democrats, contrary to their rhetoric, are all in for this style of trickle-down economics — even when winners become losers.
Shrewd and rootless corporations spark bidding wars between states — reaping special tax breaks and handouts, which disadvantage local, usually smaller, companies that stay put.
Statist media outlets ballyhoo groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings, job announcements and all the attendant political grandstanding. But reporters rarely track corporatism’s downstream effects, which are mixed at best.
[…]
