03/17/2010 05:14:00 PM EST
Regulatory Capture, Ideology Capture, State Capture
posted by John Arthos
Although the phrase "intellectual capture" has caught on, Simon Johnson makes some fine-graded distinctions between the various kinds of 'capture' that take place in the incestuous private-public relations that develop in our system.
The most interesting one lately is what he calls state capture. Chris Dodd's ideology is, quite frankly, irrelevant. He will spout whatever language the direction of the wind tells him to, and change on a dime. His words are a smoke-screen, which is what pays his bread and butter. State capture is the highest form of capture, because it means that the whole show is bought and paid for. Dodd simply answers to his masters. Hegemony has passed beyond ideology.
