Carbon credits require the sanction of the victim. Producers must pay tribute to those who do not produce.
Right. In the discussion questions, Publius had this (sorry, I haven’t been able to figure out how to italicize items I pull from other responses) -
In an earlier chapter, I wrote of the concept of “rent seeking”, the pursuit of government subsidy for the sake of profit. Jim Taggart was chosen by the board because of his connections in Washington, and now he is making subsidies the lifeblood of the railroad. Where else is this going on today?
One big situation in this regard that just came to light has to do with Goldman-Sachs. I got hit by this myself. When the investment banks were going belly-up, the only one that seemed immune (of the big ones anyway) was Goldman-Sachs. Everyone knew that they must have toxic assets on their books and it was only a matter of time before they succumbed, but their stock kept rising, they kept having good profits, etc. Come to find out, as a by-product of the AIG situation, that they had very quietly received $13Billion dollars through AIG that kept them afloat. Other companies were destroyed - they profitted. Because of the revolving door between Goldman-Sachs and the Feds. I shorted their stock and had to cover. Now I know why.
Oh, that and the rule by the Feds that, for a certain period of time nobody was ALLOWED to short those specific stocks. All of this to benefit investment bankers, by people who very freely go into and back out of government on a regular basis.