Atlas Shrugged Crony Awards Details

Crony capitalism is not true capitalism. What we have today is a system in which government intervenes in every sector of the economy, through subsidies and regulations, creating opportunities for businesses to profit from government favors.

No business today can avoid dealing with government. Still, there’s a difference between those who aim to create goods or services and succeed through market competition, for whom the struggle to navigate the shoals of regulations and permissions is a sideline; and those for whom deals with politicians and bureaucrats are the essence of what they do. Not always an easy distinction to draw. But the Atlas Shrugged Crony Awards are intended to spotlight the clearest and most egregious cases of these “political” entrepreneurs. Cases of cronyism involve a business on one side, government on the other (often with a lobbyist or other middle-man). The Contest is open to both sides of that equation.

Unfortunately today we live in a mixed economy full of examples of special interests merging with the power of the state. We have developed the Atlas Shrugged Cronyism Contest to allow everyone to participate in identifying and educating about the destructive nature of crony capitalism.

The Crony Primaries: From 3/1-4/15 the qualifying nominees were presented on our Crony Awards website for a first round of voting. Advocates posted research about their favorite nominees and shared their preferred candidates through social media to push up the view count.

And the winners are...

The winners were announced at the Atlas Summit on June 20.  They will be posted here this week.

‍