Bill Frezza: Exactly What is Crony Capitalism?

President Obama, progressive politicians, Occupy protesters, and leftist intellectuals are having a field day attacking what they call the failures and excesses of capitalism. They declare wealth to be prima facie evidence of perfidy, making no distinction as to how it was obtained. They preach equality, not just in opportunity but in economic outcome. In their eyes, all members of 1% are already guilty, so economic justice demands that the rich be heavily taxed, not just to lift others up, but to bring them down. Some defenders of capitalism draw a sharp distinction between those who obtained their wealth by satisfying willing customers through free exchange, and these are called Crony Capitalists, although they should be called "Market Capitalists". If the defenders of capitalism hope to win over fair-minded fellow citizens, we need to define these terms and answer some basic questions. In what way are Crony Capitalists and Market Capitalists the same, and in what way are they different? What makes the former immoral and the latter virtuous? Why are Crony Capitalists a threat to democracy and prosperity, while Market Capitalists are essential to both? How is it that an ever larger number of Market Capitalists are being corrupted, turning into Crony Capitalists, and what can we do to reverse that trend?