Luigi Zingales On Crony Capitalism

Luigi Zingales is the first crusader from Italy who is actually doing some good for the world. His book A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity is another in the defense of free enterprise. He rightly points out the difference between being pro markets and pro business, which too many people confuse. Over the last few years the idea of free markets has come under much assault from those who are outright against and from many others who have doubts in the wake of the recent financial crisis. It seems like this year, in particular, is seeing an intense debate over this topic with many books being published over the last few weeks on months. It could also be because we are in an election year and so more people are discussing it.

Many comparisons have been drawn between our future and what is going on in Greece due to the large amount of spending. But Zingales draws a comparison with his home country of Italy where there is rampant cronyism and corruption. Maybe our problem is that we are somewhere between Greece and Italy.