Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“The public interest theory of regulation offers a lovely fairy tale: wise functionaries, armed with clipboards and rectitude, stand vigilant against corporate predators’ rapacious appetites. … Purveyors of public choice economics commit the unforgivable sin of treating regulators as mere mortals rather than secular saints. Heretics such as [James] Buchanan and writing partner Gordon Tullock dared to explain that civil servants are no angels, and like the rest of our species, are motivated by self-interest. Public choice economists champion what’s known as ‘capture theory’ — the idea that government regulations too often serve the firms they were set up to constrain.” (06/18/25)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/regulation-without-romance