Imagine a moment: a Government in whose Council of Ministers or its surroundings sat Ortega (Inditex), Botín (Santander), Sánchez Galán (Iberdrola), Imaz (Repsol) or Roig (Mercadona), etc. It has no credibility in Spain but it is similar to what Trump is announcing, surrounded by Elon Musk (the richest man in the world) and other billionaire executives, linked above all to the technology sector. Musk will be tasked with reforming the Administration, regulatory standards and even selective tax cuts. The fox in the chicken coop. Something like “the regulators of the regulators”. This is an example of what until now was considered a capture of the State, an exercise of excessive influence by economic elites so that laws and governments function according to their interests and priorities to the detriment of the general interest. Others call it “crony capitalism,” an economy in which business success depends on the close relationship between business and government officials (for example, favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, subsidies, limitation of competition, etc.).More informationThe fact that Kamala Harris lost or Biden did not run does not invalidate the manifestos that a group (first 16, then 23) of American Nobel Prize winners in Economics wrote against the program and economic intentions. of Trump. In those manifestos they explained that although each of them has “different points of view on the particularities of economic policy” (something typical of economists), they all agreed that the Democrats' economic agenda was “vastly better than the of Trump.” An agenda, the latter, counterproductive due to high tariffs and regressive tax cuts. “Among the most important determinants of economic success are the rule of law and economic and political certainty, and Trump threatens all of that.” State capture by some of its elites is not a peculiarity of the United States. The economic history of Spain and many of its current problems, for example, cannot be understood without the influence of pressure groups and blood pacts with political power. It was developed a few years ago by a group of jurists under the Cervantine pseudonym of Sansón Carrasco (Against clientelistic capitalism, Península publishing house) and a few months ago, in a superb book, the economic journalist Carlos Sánchez (Crony capitalism, HarperCollins) , in which he shows how this economic history is written on the crooked lines of a country permanently conditioned by its elites, which has ultimately led to a capture of the State in defense of particular interests against general ones. This has not come for free in economic, political and social terms. Over the years, employers, social organizations and pressure groups of a national, regional or local nature have been known to stay (metaphorically or actually) in the surroundings of the Carrera de San Jerónimo – headquarters of the Congress of Deputies – to influence in the legislative field, especially in periods of crisis. The important thing is to occupy public space to condition certain decisions in your favor. In the prologue to that book, Public Policy professor Luis Garicano generalizes that in all countries there are rentiers, but economic progress in Spain has been, and continues to be in large part, the progress of those companies «clinging to the maternal tails of the ministers' coats.» Take the Ibex 35 list and ask yourself which companies do not depend for their success on the favor of a ministerial department or a regulatory change. Two and a half centuries ago, Adam Smith already warned that merchants from the same guild rarely meet to spend a good while without them ending up conspiring against the public or agreeing to some concerted price increase.