Corporatist cronyism didn’t come to the United States gradually or inevitably, as Munger and Villareal-Diaz imply. It came during George Washington’s presidency, endured until the relatively laissez-faire period of the Gilded Age, and returned with a vengeance when the Progressive Era inaugurated a new reign of interventionism and cronyism.
The Fall and Rise of Laissez-Faire in the United States, 1789-1900
By Burton W. Folsom Jr.
This article
appeared in
the Winter 2018/19 issue of The Independent Review.
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