The chapter dives into the concept of the Captured Economy and discusses examples such as finance, licensing, and housing. It examines policies that impede competition and redistribute income and wealth upwards, leading to temporary monopolies and windfall gains for the rich. The chapter emphasizes the negative effects of these policies on economic growth, segregation, and the environment.
Our first lifeboat is hope — hope that government could actually do good. Brink Lindsey, formerly of the Cato Institute, and now Director of the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center, talks to me about governmental capacity, and how we could make it better.