Grant Smith joins the show for another look at the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, a government entity associated with the state of Virginia that allocates taxpayer money to Israeli companies starting operations in the U.S. The projects, Smith explains, aren’t viable on their own, or else they wouldn’t need the massive subsidies from the public sector—but after getting the money, they can often put local competitors out of business because of their unnatural advantage. When these projects do fail, as illustrated by a recent biodiesel project, standard practice has been to forgive repayment of the grants. Smith describes the whole endeavor as privatized gains and socialized losses writ large.
Discussed on the show:
- “Virginia Israel Advisory Board Deal Improper Says IG” (Antiwar.com Original)
- “Sign petition: EJECT ENERGIX!” (GoPetition.com)
Grant F. Smith is the author of a number of books including Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, Divert!, and most recently The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, D.C.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org