GE and crony capitalism

In the 18th century Adam Smith wrote a great deal about the downside of the then reigning macro economic concept of mercantilism.  In short mercantilism was the control of the nation's economy and trade by means of tariffs and "bounties" which allowed the governments to ensure they always had a favorable balance of trade.  To an extend this system worked but only until it inevitably promoted protectionist wars and rampant smuggling to get around the punitive restrictions and the like imposed by each country. The expression "beggar thy neighbor" no doubt came from this era.  Smith argued for free trade and the removal of all tariffs and the like to promote greater wealth for all countries.  He was slightly ahead of his times.  Today's mercantilism is crony capitalism and the links and commentary in this post provide a good picture of how GE and the Obama administration are implementing and playing this game. Its hard to see how this marriage can help the economy long term, but then Obama simply wants to be reelected at this point and GE wants to improve its bottom line, so who's thinking long term?