Axios declares CEOs 'the new lawmakers'

...Once upon a time, the far-left used to decry "giant corporations." Today, the giant corporations are all woke, and therefore, according to Axios, our rulers. Never mind elections. Apparently, we can't even boycott them, presumably because they are too big and ominiscent. One thing is for sure right now, yes, they now seem to have power. And it's quite possibly becoming the state.

...Both Allen and VandeHei are very smart guys, and Allen, whom I once shared a panel with, is very nice. But this analysis I see about this being a good thing, or maybe just a trend, has absolutely got to go.

Point number one: A nation of unelected corporate rulers is nothing new. It ought to scare the hell out of anyone who knows anything about history, particularly the history of Italy, Spain or Latin America, where CEOs, too, became the rulers.

It's called the corporate state. Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Italy, Spain, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Brazil in one way or another had it up the wazoo. It's sometimes called mercantilism. In Spain and Italy, it was called 'fascism.'

Are we cheering fascism now? Is this the new normal? Like Peronist Argentina, which worked out so well for them? Like Mussolini's Italy? Once upon a time fascism was a bad thing. We fought a war over it. But guess what? Time has passed and wokesters have taken over. All those soldiers and home fighters in the war effort back home, were, according to wokesters, racists, and now need to be erased from history. All that's left is fascism, then. See how this works?...

Now we have a textbook example of that in the CEO of Delta who first helped craft Georgia's election integrity law and then after pressure from Joe Biden, loudly renounced the law as 'un-acceptable...

“Apparently, we can’t even boycott them, presumably because they are too big and ominiscent.”

Ronald Reagan essentially ended the DOJ using anti-trust law to prevent domination of entire industries by mega corporations. During the Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama administrations that followed, key industries consolidated into domination by a few mega corporations allied with politicians who in return for millions in campaign contributions, speaking fees, and board seats after retirement passed laws favorable to those corporations which aided them in crushing competition.

Hence during the 2008 banking crisis the decision by the Bush Administration to bail out the “too big to fail banks” and auto companies with taxpayer money instead of orchestrating an orderly bankruptcy and reorganization process in the federal bankruptcy courts. Bush could and should have let the FDIC insurance protect the deposits of consumers will letting the bondholders, stockholders, and executives bear the consequences of their fiscal irresponsibility. The banks (like the airlines a decade before) could have continued operating through and orderly bankruptcy process after which they would have had new management keenly aware there was no government safety net under them. Allowing capitalism to work, instead resorting to big government socialism to protect the big corporate donors, would have tempered a significant amount of the speculation on Wall Street as well. It is noteworthy the Treasury and Federal Reserve also backstopped foreign banks during the crisis, protecting the interests of the globalists instead of the American citizens.

Any organization “too big to fail” is tyrannical because it demands and receives resources not owed to it through the operation of a free market. So we today have mega corporations allied with a leviathan federal government and an elite ruling class for whom laws on the books do not apply. The small businessman who fails makes a mistake reporting income or expenses on his tax form, the unemployed homeowner crushed by credit card debt, the average joe who forgets to include information on a federal document, or the citizen who pushes back too hard will see the full force of the state’s power crush them while the Hunter Bidens, Hillary Clintons, James Comeys, George Soros’s of the world operate with disdain for the laws designed to keep the masses in line and no fear of being held accountable.

The founders knew the answer - prevent government from getting too powerful and keep decision making local. American prospered with a small federal government and free markets in which thousands of local and regional companies competed actively for the customer dollar. Cost of entry into business was low and government did not create barriers to entry for new players or subsidies for favored companies. In highly competitive markets innovation flourished and financial capital was allocated to productive assets instead of financial manipulation (stock buybacks, leverage buyouts, and acquisitions designed to take competition out). CEO’s, who lived in the communities where their companies operated, took an active role in ensuring the prosperity of the communities in which their children went to schools with the children of employees.

The CEO or CFO of today will wipe out a factory or division, along with hundreds or thousands of employees, based on numbers on a spreadsheet, particularly when they can spin the decision to Wall Street as becoming more efficient when they are actually milking the operation. The CEO of the past would have challenged himself and his management to find ways to make those assets, and the people, more productive so jobs and communities would be saved. Of course today no societal or religious morals temper the behavior of the titans of industry who pray at the altar of their annual bonus and stock options.

Downsizing and localizing is critical to bring back freedom. Slash the federal government, returning most activities the federal government has assumed to the states or local governments. At the local level the people, through their local politicians can decide which functions to keep or discard.

In addition a major anti-trust effort is needed to break up the oligopolies which today control most industries. Breaking a mega corporation up into 5, 10, 15 smaller companies will greatly increase competition. More competition sparks innovation and efficiency as each smaller company seeks to differentiate itself in the marketplace.

Finally, to rebuild America’s manufacturing supply chains we must increase tariffs on imported goods. In 1865 the US economy was on its back after four years of civil war. The United Kingdom dominated the world’s economy and Argentina was the rising economic power in the western hemisphere. In 1900, only 35 years later, the United States was the #1 industrial power on the planet and would soon become the greatest military power. Argentina fell by the wayside. The UK was also slipping have overextended its navy and army in overseas wars. During that 35 year period of extraordinary economic growth the United States had the highest tariffs in its history and those tariffs fully funded the operations of the federal government.

History shows great economic powers become great not through the kind of one way open market policies our political and corporate leaders adopted in the 1990’s. Great economic power is developed under protectionist policies (Great Britain in the 1700’s and 1800’s, The USA in the 19th and 20th centuries, China since 1990. To rebuild our world class supply chains, and with it the middle class, we are going to have to reinstate tariff barriers to allow US industry to rebuild and give investors the incentive to make long term investments in US supply chains.

Consider the wisdom of our founders in funding the federal government with tariffs and duties. Tariffs created a barrier to imported goods which resulted in significant investment in the young nation developing a self sufficient economy. At the same time, relying on tariffs to fund the federal government necessarily restricted its growth.

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