crony capitalism – Granite Grok

quote-but-it-crony-capitalism-erodes-our-overall-standard-of-living-and-stifles-entrepreneurs-charles-koch-72-20-80-980205690 AZ Quotes

Notable Quote – Crony Capitalism: Both Loved and Berated

There are, of course, business organizations that do benefit from the power to restrict entry and competition. This power, however, is not a function of product differentiation, or of advertising, or of the “technostructure,” or of market concentration, but is a function of explicit favors and privileges obtained from government. The sole source of the … Read more

NH State Rep Glen Aldrich

Who Let Them Run Our Elections?

When was it? I’d like to know. When did the populous decide that the beliefs of one side of a political spectrum became the “science.” In what universe did the Democrats become the arbiter of what should be considered reasonable?

maxine-waters

Why we don’t want Maxine Waters for our Financial Adviser

by Percy Blakeney

Do you know how your Representative voted on the reauthorization of the Export Import Bank? You should. The measure’s sponsor is Rep. Maxine Waters. Her reputation precedes her. H.R. 4863 reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank for ten years.

Dan Feltes Income Tax

Everything Gets Political When You Ask Politicians for a Bailout – Plus Pandering Dan Feltes

The biomass “subsidy by govt induced higher electrical rates” issue just won’t go away. The Union Leader has yet another piece lamenting that companies aren’t getting corporate welfare. Landowners are angry that the government won’t help their profits or politics for a new protected class (“unemployed biomass workers”).

NH State Senator Jeb Bradley: Boo hoo. Live by the lie, die by the lie.

Karma (reformatted, emphasis mine): [Bradley] Burned by Sierra Club: “Some supporters of the wood-burning power plants are very upset at the New Hampshire Sierra Club.”

AFP-NH Hosting Unrig the Economy Event in Hampton

NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2019 CONTACT: Greg Moore, GMoore@afphq.org AFP-NH Hosting Unrig the Economy Event in Hampton MANCHESTER, NH – Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire (AFP-NH) on Wednesday is hosting a Policy and Pints event at Smuttynose Restaurant in Hampton at 6:30PM. The open, public event is a part of AFP’s “Unrig the Economy” … Read more

Gov Sununu votes for the Free Market, NH State Senators Guida and Starr – Not so Much

In essence, that’s what both Bob Guida and David Starr are saying in this report on HB183. Yet they are claiming that they are Republicans in affiliation – and holding the second-highest elected office in NH (being State Senators).

HB365 – Thank you, Gov. Sununu, for vetoing higher electric rates!

Concord, NH – NHGOP Chairman Stephen Stepanek released the following statement regarding Governor Sununu’s veto of House Bill 365 (emphasis mine, and above image chosen especially for our NH climate either – every moment that snow is on them make those panels more and more useless): “The NHGOP supports Governor Chris Sununu’s veto of HB365 … Read more

Tales from the BudComm: Free Marketplace Part 2

Well, to recap, it looks like the Town of Gilford decided to engage in Crony Capitalism (worst cast) or (stupidly) became the butt for some established company somebody using the Town to become the “barrier to entry” for them and making it rather impossible for competitors to enter the food industry marketplace in town. …Long … Read more

Quotes

Notable Quote – Tyler Cowan

The danger, of course, is that competition for consumers will be replaced by competition for political pull. There are thousands of instances of companies lobbying for tariffs, price supports, subsidies, and restrictions on their competition, all for their own self-interest and profits of course. When such lobbying is successful, capitalism becomes about sucking up to … Read more

Irony: One of the Ways That Socialist Bernie Got Rich…

You don’t think that there’s just a whiff of Crony Capitalism embedded in here at all, do you? Bernie tried EVERYTHING to deflect what he SAYS about Capitalism (bad, bad, bad) compared to what he DOES. Like The Wizard of Oz saying, “Don’t pay attention to the man behind that curtain!!!” Simply, a Fraud. “Fine … Read more

Apparently, Vicki Schwaegler didn’t like the information I included in rejecting the Biomass veto effort

Vicki Schwaegler

That would be here due to the news that she actively politicking on overriding Gov. Sununu’s veto override on SB 365 and SB 446 instead of recusing herself from the efforts due to her family’s landholding. I was told that she decided to run again (originally she wasn’t) in no small amount due to getting the override done and promote Crony Capitalism / Corporate welfare (and I reject what a lot of Republicans are saying, in effect, “everybody is getting a subsidy so why not them because JOBS!”. Sorry, this is not the Proper Role of Government to force the population to have their money taken from them to give to corporate interests; in this case, pay higher electrical bills all over the State for a fairly few number of people. This is fair?

I even got an email over this from the Grafton Registry of Deeds complaining about the post I did – that email thread after the jump. Silly person.

Quick Thought: Not so much “free market”, eh Tom, when you want others to pay for “weeding your garden”?

So, Tom Thomson (son of Gov. Thomson of “low spending yields low taxes” fame) who for years was the honorary chair of AFP-NH which argues for Free Markets, has decided to go the Full Monty and arguing that electric rate payers (that would be you and I) should pay for his timber to be cut (e.g., override the biomass vetoes by Gov Sununu on SB 446 and SB 365 which would promulgate the over $2 Billion overcharges to keep the North Country Biomass subsidies for electrical generation plants that turn crap wood into overpriced electricity). Sure, Free Market until it comes to be “get me some” and have Government continue to institute a undeserved and mandated “tax” on the rest of us:

Tom Thomson, a timberland owner of 2,600 acres and the conservative son of former Gov. Mel Thomson, spoke at the event in favor of overriding the veto. “You have to weed your garden if you want healthy vegetables,” Thomson said. “It’s the same thing with forests.”

Hey, go weed your own dang garden, Tom, and leave my wallet alone. If you have any intellectual honesty at all, stop privatizing your profits and socializing your risk. You can’t find folks to buy your timber? Too bad – that’s the risk of being in business: reward AND failure. To paraphrase the line in your Op-Ed in the Concord Monitor:

Yes, Jim Rubens and I had a bit of a dust up over his calling for Corporate Welfare

Steve alluded to it here and I DID have the intention of putting up the thread but, well, with the start of putting in new technology, things rolled off my “table” as it were. It was all about Gov. Sununu doing the right thing and denying wood electrical generational plants a subsidy. No, not one that would have come directly from the State of NH but one in which the State would force us all to give our own personal money to them via higher electrical costs. The fact that the House and the Senate, and the Republicans therein, decided “This Is A Great Idea!” is awful, given the NH GOP Platform:

Data Point – Nowadays, it seems that Crony Capitalism pays

“In 2009, Strategas Group realized there was going to be a lot more government intervention into the economy, and stocks of companies that exhibited “the greatest lobbying intensity” might outperform the broad market. So the firm created a 50-stock “lobbying index.” …My take: Two ways to make money in 2013 America: add value or have … Read more

Where Treehugger doesn’t add the 1 + 1

(H/T: Treehugger) As most readers know, I used to go over Treehugger a lot and bring back “stuff” as a Doodling – rather easy when they have a big slant for Progressivism, Urbanism, and UberEnvironmentalism all wrapped up into a single package. However, since they’ve been purging of the likes of ‘Grok commenters Cris P Bacon and C. Dog, it’s been rather barren over there (and they got sold, so there’s a “bit” of a different focus there). However, I did venture over and saw the graph – they’re all going ga-ga over this as they all seemingly hate any kind of energy source, it seems, that has anything to do with it coming from beneath dirt or water levels. “Soon!” they believe, “we’ll be free of hurting Mommy GAIA with our noxious need of hydrocarbons”.

They’re believing that all of this taxpayer funding of solar and alternative energy start-ups has been the primary driver of the lessening cost to PV panels. Well, in a way they are correct, but from my layman’s eyes, probably not the way they think. I’ve seen this play before, and I think this has more to do with it than not:

Crony Capitalism

The State Employees Association of NH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Service Employees International Union, is set to open talks soon with Governor Hassan. For those of you private sector pukes still workin’ for the man, I have three words, well, actually more than that, taken from the existing SEIU Collective Bargaining Agreement (which can be read … Read more

Environmentalists who love crony capitalism

Because they can’t stand seeing their fellow citizens ignoring their bleats of “You shouldn’t do that” in some cases (like, you know, use electricity to live a modern lifestyle, or be allowed to drive a car that can, like, you know, can actually hold all of your family members and the grocery bags needed to feed them for a week – in 1 trip). So, they’ve convinced elected politicians (or increasingly, the unelected bureaucrats that doing the pols’ job). They certainly are in favor in taking away choice in little ways as in what kind of light bulbs you may purchase.

And when it comes to industries they like, like all things green, they are bound and determined not to let “green go dark” simply because the Free Market hates their ideas. From that ever amusing, ever complaining, bastion of Watermelon Environmentalism (otherwise known as TreeHugger), the denizens are complaining about the Federal Venture Capital spigot being turned off (gee, and I thought ALL forms of conservation was good – including conserving our tax dollars!).

What $6.6 Million In Campaign Donations Buys You In Obama-Land

by Steve MacDonald

Jeffy Katzenberg bundles 6.6 Million for Campaign Obama and, coincidentally, manages to get a meeting with the Communist Chinese Vice President, after which Katzenberg is allowed to build a Studio in China. But it gets better. Apparently Obama is not the only socialist whose pockets he is lining. The SEC is investigating whether Katzenberg may have bribed communist officials to ease the process of getting his new DreamWorks studio built in Shanghai.

Bribing is not uncommon in Communist China. but isn’t this off-shoring? Is there a shortage of US officials Katzenberg could bribe aside from Obama? And why is he building a huge studio in China? California too expensive?

Obama – every day…

(H/T: RedState)