The Kochtopus and Power (Lew Rockwell)

Lew Rockwell blogs:

The development of regime libertarianism as funded by the billionaire Koch brothers began in the 1970s with the still-continuing hate campaign against Murray Rothbard, and then the Mises Institute and eventually LRC. Can't have anti-state libertarians if your goal is to be cozy with the state. And the state always finds pro-state libertarians most useful. "Why, even X is for this program, so how can you be against it?" The change began with the move of Cato to DC, and then Reason and others too, and the takeover of a local economics department. Note: there are many other Koch non-profits in DC and elsewhere. And the Kochs have long been the biggest donors to the Republican party, for example. For the largest privately held corporation in America, there is apparently more money to be made in cahoots with the state, and in the tradition of Exxon and other Rockefeller interests, which the Koch brothers have for 30 years sought to emulate, after their brief and much-regretted flirtation with Rothbardianism. So it is no surprise that the chief Koch economist has now praised Obama's economic advisors and bank bailouts in the NY Times. (Thanks to Tom DiLorenzo)