Must-Read: Luigi Zingales: Donald Trump’s Economic Policies: Pro-Business, Not Pro-Market

Must-Read: Trump’s Republican Party: not the party of enterprise, but the party of rent-seekers with something to lose and of would-be rent seekers with something to gain…

Luigi Zingales: Donald Trump’s Economic Policies: Pro-Business, Not Pro-Market: “Trump is eliminating lobbyists by putting them in charge of all departments…
 

…After his election, it was difficult to predict what President Trump would do. In the election campaign he said everything and the opposite of everything: from a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports to the reintroduction of the separation of commercial and investment banks, from an aggressive use of antitrust authority to the total abolishment of Dodd-Frank, the financial regulation that was enacted after the crisis. After two months, it is clear that the Trump industrial policy will be pro-business, not pro-market.
 
It may seem to be a nuance, but there is a fundamental difference. A pro-business policy favors existing companies at the expense of future generations. A pro-market policy favors conditions that allow all businesses to thrive without any favoritism…