Surveys reveal that a majority of Americans believe government is run for special interests, not public interest. The increased presence and power of lobbyists in Washington and the excesses of PAC and campaign contributions, in-kind benefits, and other favors would seem to indicate a government of weak public servants corrupted by big private-interest groups.
But as Fred McChesney shows, this perspective affords only a partial understanding of why private interests are paying, and what they are paying for. Consider, for example, Citicorp, the nation's largest banking company, whose registered lobbyists spend most of their time blocking legislation that could hurt any one of the company's credit-card, loan, or financial-service operations. What this scenario suggests, the author argues, is that payments to politicians are often made not for political favors, but to avoid political disfavor, that is, as part of a system of political extortion or "rent extraction."
The basic notion of rent extraction is simple: because the state can legally take wealth from its citizens, politicians can extort from private parties payments not to expropriate private wealth. In that sense, rent (that is, wealth) extraction is "money for nothing"--money paid in exchange for politicians' inaction. After constructing this model of wealth extraction, McChesney tests it with many examples, including several involving routine proposals of tax legislation, followed by withdrawal for a price. He also shows how the model applies more generally to regulation. Finally, he examines how binding contracts are written between private interests and politicians not to extract wealth.
This book, standing squarely at the intersection of law, political science, and economics, vividly illustrates the patterns of legal extortion underlying the current fabric of interest-group politics.

Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction, and Political Extortion

Business & Money

McChesney, Fred S.

Economics

Harvard University Press

Book by Goetz, Charles J., McChesney, Fred S.

Antitrust Law: Interpretation and Implementation

Goetz, Charles J.

Business

Lexis Pub.

This new edition casebook excels at communicating a sense of how antitrust law affects both business decisions and lawyerly practice. It addresses the initial difficulty that most students experience in understanding how the different statutes, doctrinal developments, and economic issues fit together to form a reasonably coherent picture. The authors achieve this by presenting a set of overview materials that provide a clear road map and useful perspectives. The Third Edition of Antitrust Law includes more lower court cases and more "real-world" material such as jury instructions. Although the text is sparing in its presentation of economic models, the authors have also integrated important economics into every part of the text. This casebook shows how a few simple models, as well as more general implications of social-science thinking, yield important insights and also wield much influence in antitrust jurisprudence. The Third Edition includes an expanded use of clarifying visual-aid exhibits to help students better understand complex issues in law as well as economics.

Antitrust Law: Interpretation And Implementation (University Casebook Series)

Foundation Pr

The new edition of this casebook, which welcomes Thom Lambert as a coauthor, remains true to its original goals, in that it:
<ul>
<li>Focuses more than other texts on lower-court interpretations and application of antitrust principles, minimizing the importance of older “classic cases” from the Supreme Court, except to the extent they influence antitrust today</li> <li>Makes use of materials from actual cases and real-life situations, materials such as complaints, expert reports, pleadings, and jury instructions</li> <li>Exposes the sorts of problems encountered (indeed, sometimes created) by lawyers who do not necessarily specialize in antitrust, but work in contract-related areas where antitrust concerns must be part of the attorney’s planning and drafting</li> <li>Emphasizes that modern antitrust continues to evolve as a branch of applied microeconomics, but also that the learning required to be economically literate is neither as complicated nor as lengthy as presented in other texts</li> <li>Is geared for a one-semester course by presenting the antitrust basics in an economical way, omitting material that pads many other texts but which an instructor typically will not have time to cover</li>
</ul>

Antitrust Law, Interpretation and Implementation, 5th (University Casebook Series)

Lambert, Thomas A.

Foundation Press

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Books by McChesney, Fred S.