Maria Aspan

Anne Lipton has been working in corporate law for decades.

She's a professor at the University of Colorado's law school.

She says that when the government picks winners and losers, companies have less incentive to compete with each other.

That leads to less innovation and less spending and less job creation, which can all hurt the economy.

This has long been the conventional wisdom in Washington and on Wall Street.

It certainly messes with what's known as free market capitalism, which for decades has been the gospel of corporate America.

Daniela Ballou Ayers founded a consulting company and served in the Obama administration.

Now she runs the Leadership Now Project, a coalition of business leaders that has endorsed political candidates from both parties.

She's worried that the United States is even at risk of tipping over into crony capitalism.

meaning that companies rise and fall based on how much a political leader likes them.

Like, say, the Russian billionaires who own oil companies under Vladimir Putin.

A White House official speaking to NPR in condition of anonymity largely dismisses these concerns.

and says that companies like Intel and NVIDIA are crucial to U.S.

national and economic security.

And to be sure, the U.S.

stock market is booming away.

Intel didn't respond to requests for comment.

In an emailed statement, an NVIDIA spokesperson says its discussions with President Trump have focused, quote, on his desire for America to win as a nation.

Baloo Ayers says that it's tough for business leaders to know how to stand up to Trump, especially after he's threatened some of them.

But she warns that crony capitalism can have some pretty dire consequences for the overall economy, but also for individual business leaders.