Trump Wins: Will he be an enemy of crony capitalism?

First, we have to say that we think crony capitalism will shift under Trump. It will reduce in some areas. It may grow in others. Is it possible that crony capitalism will reduce on net under Trump? That’s a tough question, but we believe it is at least possible that some progress can be made in fighting at least some crony capitalism. Had Kamala won the crony system as we know it would have kept trucking along. In fact, as she was essentially a figurehead who would have been actively managed, had she won The White House there is the very real possibility that crony capitalism would have gotten much worse than even current levels. The Obama corporatist vibe ran strong with Harris and she had a lot of favors to pay back. She would have been bad.

But where could Trump crony capitalism emerge?

The chief concern we have is around tariffs. As we write this lobbyists of all stripes are planning their strategies in the face a new tariff happy administration.

It must be said, and we will likely say this many times in the coming months, that tariffs are taxes. We believe that taxes should always be reduced. That should be the natural disposition of American government at this point. Taxes are high enough. Raising tariffs that benefit particular industries means we could very likely pay higher prices for a myriad of goods, from EVs to TVs. That’s not good.

I like cheap TVs. College football season is just better when watched on an ultra high def 70 inch screen purchased for less than $400 (Best Buy has them on sale.). I can go the rest of my life without ever purchasing an American manufactured ($1000) TV.

Where else might tariffs impact us?

How about food? We get a lot of produce and meat from abroad. Will the prices of these goods go up, benefiting agribusiness in the US but hurting consumers? It’s certainly possible.

Another area we have concern is around “infrastructure projects”. Trump is not a small government guy in many respects and he is a developer by trade. “Infrastructure projects” are almost always rife with crony capitalism, bloated contracts, favoritism when contracts are awarded, all sorts of things. If Trump starts proposing building new bridges and highways all over the place keep your eyes wide open. We don’t have the money for this stuff.

Of course Harris would probably have done much worse given the chance. If she had a Democratic Congress to work with the cronyism would have been off the charts.

There are other areas where we have concern and we will address these issues in the days, weeks, months, and years to come but let’s consider areas where we think things could get better, and less crony friendly with Trump coming back to The White House.