Aug 21, 2026 · 44 min · 13 segments
This week, Bob talks with Dr. Patrick Newman about his new book, Cronyism: Rise of the Corporatist State, 1849–1929, which…
Patrick NewmanGuest
Bob MurphyHost
Well, before we get, because I think Patrick, probably as we chatted beforehand, I think probably just go through and list some of the more provocative section headers and just have you give folks a taste of what's in this book.
This might be unnecessary for most of our listeners, but in case other people come across this interview or whatever, isn't it the case that libertarians are just big fans of big business and that, you know, didn't Ayn Rand say big business is the most persecuted minority in America? And so I thought, you know, especially right wing libertarian types, that whatever big business wants to do goes and governors get out of the way.
Yeah, so I'm glad you brought that up because there's a lot of misconceptions with that.
Whenever people hear you're pro-free market or pro-limited government, you say, oh, you just want big business to control everything.
And there's, of course, an element of truth to that in that, as I discuss in the book, there's lots of good things that big business does or that they bring to the table, economies of scale, so on and so forth.
But a lot of times big business, they might preach the free market, but in reality, they support cronyism.
Which I define as basically policies that benefit special interests at the public's expense.
They'll support regulations that benefit them, but that stifle innovation, so on and so forth.
We don't favor big business, just like we don't favor small business and so on.
We favor those entities that can actually survive and produce the goods and services that consumers value on the open market.
Well, before we get, because I think Patrick, probably as we chatted beforehand, I think probably just go through and list some of the more provocative section headers and just have you give folks a taste of what's in this book.
This might be unnecessary for most of our listeners, but in case other people come across this interview or whatever, isn't it the case that libertarians are just big fans of big business and that, you know, didn't Ayn Rand say big business is the most persecuted minority in America? And so I thought, you know, especially right wing libertarian types, that whatever big business wants to do goes and governors get out of the way.
Yeah, so I'm glad you brought that up because there's a lot of misconceptions with that.
Whenever people hear you're pro-free market or pro-limited government, you say, oh, you just want big business to control everything.
And there's, of course, an element of truth to that in that, as I discuss in the book, there's lots of good things that big business does or that they bring to the table, economies of scale, so on and so forth.
But a lot of times big business, they might preach the free market, but in reality, they support cronyism.
Which I define as basically policies that benefit special interests at the public's expense.
They'll support regulations that benefit them, but that stifle innovation, so on and so forth.
We don't favor big business, just like we don't favor small business and so on.
We favor those entities that can actually survive and produce the goods and services that consumers value on the open market.
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