The latest risk supposedly precipitating a collapse of America is not the rise of Socialism; It is not Senators Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris or even AOC. Medicaid for all will be expensive, and a guaranteed income will be costly – but they are not existential threats. It ain’t even the Russians hacking the 2016 election or the rise of China as an economic powerhouse.

The threat to America is this: we have abandoned our core philosophy. Our first principle of this nation as a meritocracy, a free-market economy, where competition drives economic decision-making. In its place, we have allowed a malignancy to fester, a virulent pus-filled bastardized form of economics so corrosive in nature, so dangerously pestilent, that it presents an extinction-level threat to America – both the actual nation and the “idea” of America.

This all-encompassing mutant corruption saps men’s souls, crushes opportunities, and destroys economic mobility. Its a Smash & Grab system of ill-gotten rewards for the well-connected few. The rest of the population? Fuck ’em. This is not what Capitalism is, at least not as conceived by Adam Smith.

The peril gravely putting our nation at risk of failure is Crony Capitalism.

We can define this as the return on capital generated not by innovation and risk taking, but rather through the unholy alliance between the business and political classes. Instead of genuine competition, they use the states’ power to legislate, regulate, grant hand outs, permits, government licenses, special tax breaks, and other dispensations as favors to enrich each other.

I make this observation as an unabashed capitalist. Over the course of my career I have started several businesses, some of which have succeeded. In my day job, I invest capital for other capitalists. Around the world, it is undeniable that capitalism has produced more wealth and human well-being than any other system this world has known. The global gains in income that has raised millions out of poverty the past several decades is directly attributed to major economies such as China embracing (at least in part) some form of market-based capitalism.

How bad is cronyism? Look no further than the giant sum of corporate money spent on lobbying to get a sense of how enormous the problem has become.

Here are some of the worst manifestations of this pox on capitalism:

I plan to do more thinking and research on this topic. There will be a more measured Bloomberg column about what I find.

But JFC, there are lots of worrisome signs out there that require immediate attention.

Want to guess why more young people support socialism than capitalism? They cannot afford decent health care or their own place and have crushing student loans — all the while billionaires get tax breaks for their private jets. WTF do you think the outcome of that scenario is going to be?

Here is some advice to real capitalists: You best recognize that Socialism is the symptom, but the underlying problem is cronyism. Wise up before, as Nick Haneuer presciently warned 5 years ago, The Pitchforks Are Coming… For the Plutocrats.

UPDATE: March 10, 2019

Hudson Yards versus Amazon HQ2, March 10, 2019.

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1. It extended the holding period to qualify for carried interest rates of 20 percent from one year to three.