Posted on 07/29/2026 2:56:23 PM PDT by GrootheWanderer
A LinkedIn post shared by George Kollitides, head of the Pentagon’s Economic Defense Unit (EDU), gives it a more troubling meaning.
The post by a mining executive described Washington as the “state as limited partner” and declared that “sovereign backing is now a competitive variable.” Companies receiving federal equity investments or debt guarantees, it says, “will have easier access to offtake agreements, permitting support, and follow-on institutional capital.” Meanwhile, “projects without state alignment will face higher hurdles, regardless of grade or jurisdiction.” Those words came from the mining executive, but Kollitides chose to amplify them. Read alongside Feinberg’s warning, they offer a remarkably candid description of the emerging arrangement. Get aligned with the government, and opportunities multiply. Remain outside the favored circle, and the hurdles grow.
(Excerpt) Read more at cato.org ...
But how in the hell is the government official in charge of those purchases also serving as a director of an investment bank that facilitates those purchases, a bank which brags about his government position in its prospectus
“But how in the hell is the government official in charge of those purchases also serving as a director of an investment bank that facilitates those purchases, a bank which brags about his government position in its prospectus”
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Because conflicts-of-interest are no longer considered unethical or illegal, and Trump is not willing to fire the people doing it. It’s going to bite him along the way, if it’s not already doing so.
I know someone in our local congressman’s office (Republican) who told me if people back home knew how many people in the administration and Congress were using their jobs to enrich themselves there would be riots. He said he’s never seen it so bad.
It does raise concerns and warrants scrutiny.
No doubt any who point this out on here will here cries of “TDS!”.
He tried to, the judges keep overturning the firings.
Welcome to industrial policy. Government subsidized and supported firms that can finance and develop production capacity immune from open competitive pressures.
This is how many of our competitor nations (most notably China) have taken market share, jobs and revenue from us - even to the point of the USA losing the ability to meet its needs for Strategically critical supply and capabilities (like rare earth magnets, electrical grid components and pharmaceuticals).
It’s not going to ‘bite him’. It’s made him more money in the last two years than he made in his entire life.
It will bite the country tho…
Bkmk
When I was growing up we called it something else when the government start taking control of the means of production.
Communism.
’Industrial policy’ sounds like a focus grouped alternative.
Seems like some “conservatives” have forgotten everything they once knew about the superiority of free markets.
What a pile of crap. A “Bloomberg” grasping for straws report? Nonsense. The PROBLEM was too many captured WOKE contract companies encouraged to become democrap party operatives in the mold of US AID or else. All that is asked now is to be professional. In our own Pentagon. If you are believing a leftist Bloomberg “report”, I remind you that the mark never sees themselves as the mark.
Tell me you didn’t read the article without telling me you didn’t read the article.
“the superiority of free markets.”
How about when some market participants lie, cheat and steal? Or when enemies seek to manipulate markets, as a weapon of war against you?
Ignore that, and pretend that the market “should be” perfectly “free”?
For free market theory to work in practice, fairness must be enforced on all competitors.
When hostile powers seek to deliberately manipulate markets to destroy America’s essential National Security capabilities, it is just naive to ignore that.
Seems like some “conservatives” are only in favor of capitalism when Democrats are in charge.
That ship sailed a long time ago with public funding directed to NGOs and "community" organizations doing little more than providing kickbacks to the Dems and paying for Dem GOTV efforts.
Trump is just catching up.
Is this good for the republic? No. But you can't fight Dem illiberal and often illegal conduct with liberal means and laws tied up by leftist procedure and leftist judges. Same with Chinese and European mercantilism.
The choice we often have now is between conservative and leftist form of illiberalism. Since the conservative form is considerably more likely to leave me and mine alone and carries with it a tendency towards liberal internal markets and protection from foreign and domestic business predators, I prefer the former.
I’m beginning to wonder if many conservatives ever had any real principles at all or if it was all just “own the libs” for them.
I've been accused of "black pilling," but if so my "black pill" is considerably different from Yarvin or Vermuel who criticize enlightenment liberal politics per se.
I haven't abandoned liberal political and economic principles, but I recognize that they can decay and sometimes need a period of illiberalism to be restored. In many ways the American Revolution was illiberal in its conduct, which not only involved open warfare against the sovereign but also resembled a civil war replete with death squads and expulsion of the Tory population. But the outcome was a liberal democratic republic.
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