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410 Pages·2013·3.02 MB·English

Crony Capitalism in America

Crony Capitalism
in America
2008–2012
Hunter Lewis
AC2 Books
94 Landfill Road
Edinburg, VA 22824
888.542.9467 [email protected]
Crony Capitalism in America: 2008–2012 © 2013 by AC2 Books. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles
and reviews.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(Provided by Quality Books, Inc.)
Lewis, Hunter.
Crony capitalism in America, 2008-2012 / Hunter Lewis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
LCCN 2013938294
ISBN 978-0-9887267-2-7
1. Capitalism--United States. 2. Financial crisis--United States.
3. Financial institutions--United States--Management. 4. Capitalists
and financiers--United States. 5. United States--Economic policy.
6. United States--Economic conditions. I. Title.
HB501.L49 2013
330.12’2
QBI13-600070
Contents
Part 1: Introduction
1: Crony Capitalism around the World . . . . . . . . . 3
2: Crony Capitalism in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Part 2: Crony Politicians
3: Pay to Play: A Capitol Hill Primer . . . . . . . . . . 23
4: Political ATMs: Fannie and Freddie . . . . . . . . . 35
5: Honey Pots 1: The Recovery Act
(“Stimulus”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6: Honey Pots 2: Hurricane Sandy Relief
and the “Fiscal Cliff” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7: Getting Rich (or Living Rich)
from Public Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8: The Revolving Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Part 3: Crony Finance
9: “Government Sachs”: Revolving Door
Prodigy and Power Behind the Throne . . . . . . 83
10: “Government Electric”: Wall Street
Masquerading as Main Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
• v
vi • Crony Capitalism in America
Part 4: Crony Food
11: Monsanto’s Massive Experiment with
Our Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
12: Washington’s Plantation System . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Part Five: Crony Medicine
13: Soviet-Style Healthcare Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
14: Doubling Down on Crony Medicine . . . . . . 151
15: Big Pharma and FDA: A Marriage
Not Made in Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
16: Vaccines: A Crony Capitalist’s Dream . . . . . . 183
Part Six: Crony Labor
17: Big Labor Rakes It in: The Auto Bail-out . . . 195
18: Public Employee Unions: Crony Capitalism
at Its Most Blatant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
19: Public Sector Union Scandals
Begin to Leak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
20: Public Union Foes and Defenders . . . . . . . . . 225
21: Not All State and Local Cronyism
Involves Unions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Part Seven: Crony Lawyers
22: Legal Predators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
23: The Trial Lawyer Money Machine . . . . . . . . . 255
Part Eight:Beyond the Usual Suspects
24: Reaching Out Globally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Contents • vii
Part Nine: Losers
25: Charity Gets No Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
26: The Poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
27: War on the Young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Part Ten: Democracy and Crony Capitalism
28: Is Democracy to Blame? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Part Eleven: Solutions
29: Diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325
30: Prescription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Part 1
Introduction