Getting Crony Capitalism Half Right: New at Reason

Americans are prone to assuming the government redistributes wealth downward, to the poor and vulnerable. In The Captured Economy, libertarian Brink Lindsey and modern liberal Steven Teles emphasize the ways governments persistently redistribute wealth upward, from ordinary people to elites. Their accessibly written book highlights several sectors of the economy that have been dramatically misshaped by state-secured privilege—in economic jargon, by “rent-seeking.” This, they show, has both reduced productivity and increased inequality.

Lindsey, a vice president at the Niskanen Center, and Teles, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins, don’t try to identify every industry that has been seriously distorted in this way. But they explore important examples that reflect a much larger problem, writes Gary Chartier in his review of The Captured Economy.

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