Steroids of Capitalism
Term
Steroids of Capitalism
Idea level
Others (metaphor)
Definition
Steroids of Capitalism is Yuen Yuen Ang’s metaphor for access money: a form of corruption that can perversely stimulate commercial transactions while producing serious side effects.
Ang rejects the simplistic binary that corruption is either “good” or “bad” for growth. In her analysis, access money is never good, but its harm is indirect and punctuated: it distorts allocation, breeds systemic risk, and exacerbates inequality—building up over time before erupting in crises rather than impeding annual growth.
Sources
Canonical articulation:
Ang, Y.Y. (2020) China’s Gilded Age, Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Unbundling Corruption Across Countries; Chapter 5: Corrupt and Competent; Chapter 7.
Policy-facing synthesis:
Ang, Y.Y. (2021). “The Robber Barons of Beijing: Can China Survive Its Gilded Age?” Foreign Affairs.
Genealogy
[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm
→ [Pillar] Mechanical thinking: corruption treated as a one-dimensional problem
→ [Measurement] Bundled corruption scores and standard linear regressions focus on aggregate levels and annual GDP figures
→ [Critique] Simplistic conclusion that corruption is either “good” or “bad” for growth
Contrast with
[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)
→ [Typology] Unbundling Corruption
→ [Concept] Access Money
→ [Concept] Steroids of Capitalism
→ [Application] Explains how access money can stimulate growth while generating serious risks, analogous to steroids that stimulate muscle growth but carry severe side effects
→ [Application] Access money’s harm is punctuated—building up to crisis—rather than impeding annual growth
Quotes
[Access money as steroids] The best analogy [for corruption] is drugs (Table 1.1). Within my typology, petty theft and grand theft are equivalent to toxic drugs – they are the most economically damaging as they drain public and private wealth… Speed money as painkillers: although they lessen pain, they don’t give health benefits, and consuming them in excess is harmful. Access money, on the other hand, is the steroids of capitalism. Steroids are known as ‘growth-enhancing’ drugs, but they come with serious side effects.
— Ang, China’s Gilded Age, Chapter 1 (pp. 11–13).
[Rejecting the good vs. bad binary] My book rejects simplistic conclusions about corruption being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for growth. It maintains that all corruption is harmful, but that the harms of different forms of corruption manifest themselves in different ways. Access money is like steroids, a growth-enhancing drug that comes with serious side effects. Cross-national correlations are not able to capture the accumulative risks that result from crony capitalism and regulatory capture. Observers were therefore stunned when the financial boom in East Asia and that in the United States crashed in 1997 and 2008, respectively. In assessing the economic effects of corruption, we must look beyond annual GDP figures and qualitatively examine its indirect distortionary consequences.
— Ang, China’s Gilded Age, Chapter 7 (p. 196).
[China’s gilded age as demonstration] Access money, on the other hand, is like steroids. It spurs muscle growth and allows one to perform superhuman feats, but it comes with serious side effects, including the possibility of a complete meltdown. Once one unbundles corruption, the Chinese paradox ceases to look so baffling… By rewarding politicians who serve capitalist interests and enriching capitalists who pay for privileges, this now dominant form of corruption [access money] has stimulated commerce, construction, and investment, all of which contribute to GDP growth. But it has also exacerbated inequality and bred systemic risks.
— Ang, “The Robber Barons of Beijing”
Concept Constellation
Across Ang’s work, Steroids of Capitalism consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:
Critique: Mechanical Thinking (false binary of corruption as “good or bad” for growth)
Toxic drugs (petty theft & grand theft); painkillers (speed money); steroids (access money)
Punctuated, non-linear effects of access money on growth
[Related external terms]
The China model
Crony capitalism
Capitalist boom and bust cycles
Corruption and economic growth