Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior…
CFIF on Twitter CFIF on YouTube
More Legal Shenanigans from the Biden Administration’s Department of Education

Among the foremost threats to individual freedom in America is the abusive and oftentimes lawless behavior of federal administrative agencies, whose vast armies of overpaid bureaucrats remain unaccountable for their excesses.

Among the most familiar examples of that bureaucratic abuse is the Department of Education (DOE).  Recall, for instance, the United States Supreme Court’s humiliating rebuke last year of the Biden DOE’s effort to shift hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt from the people who actually owed them onto the backs of American taxpayers.

Even now, despite that rebuke, the Biden DOE launched an alternative scheme last month in an end-around effort to achieve that same result.

Well, the Biden DOE is now attempting to shift tens of millions of dollars of…[more]

March 19, 2024 • 08:35 AM

Liberty Update

CFIFs latest news, commentary and alerts delivered to your inbox.
Today’s Robber Barons are on Capitol Hill Print
By Troy Senik
Thursday, April 22 2010
For all of the hand-wringing over obscene corporate power in the age of Goldman Sachs, it bears noting that nearly every time big business takes the hammer to America, it’s the federal government that’s holding the nail.

If conventional wisdom in Washington is to be believed – the beginning of a syllogism that almost never bears fruit – we are living in another Gilded Age, an epoch when rapacious captains of industry enrich themselves at the expense of “the public good” (an idea always nebulous enough to avoid empirical verification). As one Huffington Post columnist put it, “We are now at the mercy of modern Robber Barons, and if history is any judge, it is either them or us.”

But the media aside, repeating a hackneyed narrative ad nauseam doesn’t make it true. The problem with the notion that men like John D. Rockefeller or Cornelius Vanderbilt pilfered the public to create obscene fortunes in the 19th century has the same flaw as today’s argument: it ignores elementary economics.  Short of fraud, trade is only engaged in when both parties believe they will find themselves better off after a transaction than before – so it is not, in fact, “either them or us.”  In fact, in assessing the legacy of the Robber Barons, historian Burton Folsom concluded:

“The success of the market entrepreneurs of the post-Civil War era depended on their ability to serve consumers. When they started their enterprises, the United States was a second-rate power; during their lifetimes they spurred American industry to world dominance. Their accomplishments in transportation, steel, oil, and chemicals led to the unparalleled economic progress of the late 1800s, contributed to American prosperity, and prepared the way for future innovation. Along with our Founding Fathers and the World War II generation, this remarkable group of entrepreneurs has a rightful claim to being America’s greatest generation.”

Before outraged liberals accidentally knock their piping hot soy chai lattes into their laps (they don’t make those post-consumer recycled cups like they used to), they should note two key words in Folsom’s diagnosis: “market entrepreneurs”.  He contrasts this clique with what he calls “political entrepreneurs” – businessmen who largely acquired their lucre through their connections with government.  If you’re looking for a modern analogy, this latter group is your target.

For all of the hand-wringing over obscene corporate power in the age of Goldman Sachs, it bears noting that nearly every time big business takes the hammer to America, it’s the federal government that’s holding the nail.  Sure, Wall Street worked itself into a lather with complex financial instruments as impenetrable as Fermat’s Last Theorem; but when they collapsed, it was Washington manning the bucket brigade (note to readers: you paid for the buckets). And yes, plenty of everyday Americans took a hit to their retirement plans because of pension investments in Chrysler or General Motors – but it was the Obama Administration that shoved those supposedly secured investors out of line in order to deliver bigger benefits for the United Auto Workers.

Now, as Congress considers extensive new regulations intended to prevent another meltdown, it’s obvious that the same hands are still in the public till.  The most glaring example of this is the proposed legislation’s $50 billion fund to cushion the costs of future bailouts.  Because the money will come from assessments on the very firms the bill is meant to keep from bringing down the financial system, proponents argue that it’s a necessary safeguard.  But by telegraphing that the debt of these “too-big-to-fail” firms has the implicit backing of the federal government, Congress would essentially turn the biggest Wall Street firms into clones of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – reckless institutions drunk on the taxpayer’s tab.

The villains here aren’t the members of the American business class – at least not solely. It’s true enough that corporate America will exploit any opportunity for competitive advantage handed out by government.  And anyone who thinks that this insight can’t be squared with support for a free-market economy should read Adam Smith’s magnum opus “The Wealth of Nations,” which praises capitalism and condemns businessmen in rough proportion. 

This sort of avarice is eternal.  But it can only be actualized by political power. Barons can exist in a free market. Robbers can’t. Robbery requires coercion.  And in a free economy, that coercion can only come from government. So are we in a new age of Robber Barons? Sure. But they’re not on Wall Street. They’re on Capitol Hill.

Notable Quote   
 
"Americans do not trust several major U.S. institutions, including the national news media.The recently released Center Square Voters' Voice poll found that 43% of Americans say the media is trustworthy, compared with 54% who said it is not trustworthy.Younger people were more likely to trust the media, with 47% of those ages 18-34 saying they trust it and 46% saying the opposite.The numbers steadily…[more]
 
 
— Casey Harper, The Center Square
 
Liberty Poll   

Do you believe the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately reject the new Biden administration automobile emissions rule as beyond the scope of administrative agency authority?