Capitalism Vs. Crony Capitalism
Via Sam Bowman at Adam Smith Institute, Tom Palmer's piece at City A.M. on why he loves free-market capitalism:

It's a legal, social, economic, and cultural system of decentralised innovation - what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction" - that relies on the voluntary cooperation and exchange among legal equals. Capitalist culture celebrates the entrepreneur, the scientist, the risk-taker, the innovator, the creator. Although derided as materialistic by some, capitalism is at its core a spiritual and cultural enterprise...

Capitalism rests on a rejection of the ethics of loot and grab, the means by which most wealth enjoyed by the wealthy is acquired in other economic and political systems. For much of human history, those who were rich were rich because they took from others, and especially because they used their power to gain monopolies and to confiscate the produce of others through taxes. It's only under conditions of capitalism that people commonly become wealthy without being criminals.

...It's important to distinguish free-market capitalism from crony capitalism, a system that has mired many nations in corruption and backwardness and is, sadly, on the rise. In many countries, if someone is rich, there is a very good chance that he (rarely she) holds political power or is a close relative, friend or supporter - in a word, a crony - of those who do hold power, and that his wealth came not from being a producer of valued goods and services but from enjoying the privileges that the state can confer on some at the expense of others.

Sadly, crony capitalism can with increasing accuracy be applied to the economy of the United States, a country in which failed firms are routinely bailed out with money taken from taxpayers, in which the national capital is a gigantic hive of lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians, consultants and hacks, and in which appointed officials of the Treasury department and the central bank reward some firms and harm others.

Such corrupt cronyism shouldn't be confused with free-market capitalism, which is based on the rule of law, on equality of rights for all, on the freedom to choose, on the freedom to innovate, on the guiding discipline of both private profits and private losses. Under American cronyism, the many are bought off with subsidised home loans, the economy generates a huge bubble, the financial system crashes and the powerful get bailouts, only to be followed by more bailouts, easier money and another cycle.

The cronyist system of private profits and socialised losses hasn't worked out too well. Give me free-market capitalism any day.

Adam Smith Institute blog I found via the very cool Karen DeCoster's blogroll. She's a one-woman biker gang, a libertarian, and, well, I'll let her tell you:

I am a Certified Public Accountant and freelance writer who is devoted to the causes of liberty, individualism, and the free market. I embrace the right to keep and bear arms; recognize the superiority of the Articles of Confederation; subscribe to a motley assortment of minor conspiracy theories; and believe that government is evil, immoral, corrupt, and unnecessary in a free society. I am also an ardent lover and student of Austrian economics, the pro-market, anti-statist school of economics. Additionally, I proudly wear the title "Queen of Political Incorrectness", given to me by my friend Tom DiLorenzo.

There's more at the link. Basically, she's cool as hell and I can't wait to have drinks with her, which I hope to do next time I'm in Detroit.