Corporatism Wednesday

John Hinderaker has been on fire lately.  He points out that President Obama isn’t really that bright (and appears to be suckered by Steven Chu’s silly notions), but is plenty willing to chase good money after bad with “green energy.”  You’d think that Solyndra would have slowed things down for this administration, but then again, it’s not corporatism without the cronies…

And speaking of chasing good money after bad and Steven Chu’s silly notions, the Energy Secretary—in a move apparently designed to prove that we certainly don’t need an Energy Secretary or Department of Energy—was the one who personally approved a $535 million federal loan for Solyndra.  Note that Solyndra “officially defaulted on its loan that day,” and had been known for a while to be bleeding money.

Anybody who argues that the government should be funding research or “picking winners” needs to explain this one away.  Government officials do not spend their own money; therefore, they are much less likely to pull the plug on losers.  Indeed, when those losers happen to be big donators (like the folks at Solyndra), they still somehow get piles and piles of cash even after proving themselves abject failures.

Corporatism is the great anchor dragging American the American economy down.  The only way to get rid of corporatism is to destroy the government’s ability to pick winners and losers.  Unfortunately, this seems unlikely to happen anytime before a full-on governmental default necessitates this outcome.

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