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Trump’s Corporate Equity Acquisition Spreewww.cato.org/blog/trumps-corporate-equity-acquisition-spree
652 sats \ 7 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 17 Dec econ
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, the president confirmed that he’s considering taking equity stakes in defense companies—“he” being the federal government.
Trump was then quoted as saying:
We should take stakes in companies when people need something. I think we should take stakes in companies. Now, some people would say that doesn’t sound very American. Actually, I think it is very American.
Let that sink in: We should take stakes in companies when people need something.
In a recent essay for The Dispatch, I discuss the concerns surrounding the series of deals the administration has struck over the past six months that have given the federal government ownership stakes in a portfolio of private companies. In the past, the government has taken equity and warrant positions on plausible emergency grounds, with the intention of offloading the stakes after the emergency subsided. That’s not what’s going on here.
So, no, what the administration is doing is not very American. Russian or Chinese, yes.
...read more at cato.org
~Politics_And_Law
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55 sats \ 5 replies \ @Undisciplined 17 Dec
This is really more of Trump saying the quiet parts out loud.
"Defense" companies basically only work for the state. For all intents and purposes, then, they are part of the state.
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69 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 10h
US administration approves $10B arms sale to Taiwan #1352751
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69 sats \ 2 replies \ @optimism 23h
If defense companies only work for the state, then there is a problem, because how then, does one defend against the state?
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 22h
This was Joe Bidens point when he was mocking gun owners by saying that he had F-16s
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119 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 22h
Yes. There are ultimately consequences to that attitude, if not corrected, though. Can take a couple hundred years (though things move a lot faster with the internet) but in the end people won't accept it.
It's probably a win-win in the long run to not be a fucking wannabe autocrat, and serve a job faithfully, regardless of the political flavor one pretends to be. The main problem is that all the current culprits are so exceptionally old, they will likely be 6 feet under before that happens even if things move at 10x the speed it has in the past.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 23h
good point
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 21h
State Capitalism. Trying to take on China at what China has excelled at. Since China beat Capitalist West at its own game and won the trade war. Now that US military industrial combine has been made impotent by Chinas stranglehold upon rare earths supply chains.
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