I have heard arguments about whether it was Milton Friedman or Gore Vidal who first came up with this apt summary of a collusion between the overweening state and certain favored monopolistic concerns, whereby the profits can be privatized and the debts conveniently socialized, but another term for the same system would be “banana republic.

I highly recommend this essay by Hitchens on the direction our government is heading. It captures brilliantly a number of the intangibles of our situation.