Corporate leaders, aiming for a three-year tenure and a stock option payout, often accept detrimental long-term deals. They willingly sacrifice brand control to aggregators for immediate revenue gains, repeating historical mistakes seen in industries like media.

When facing government pressure for deals that border on state capitalism, a single CEO gains little by taking a principled stand. Resisting alone will likely lead to their company being punished while competitors comply. The pragmatic move is to play along to ensure long-term survival, despite potential negative effects for the broader economy.

Despite its global power, Apple is bowing to Chinese government pressure, evidenced by Tim Cook's recent visit and a cut in App Store fees. This demonstrates that for multinational corporations, commercial success in China is contingent on political appeasement and making commercial concessions.

In a declining democracy, the government can dictate which companies thrive. This incentivizes business leaders to abandon prior principles and praise the ruling power to protect their market position and status against competitors.

Business leaders may see short-term benefits in aligning with an aspiring autocrat. However, this alliance is temporary. In Hungary, 15 years after Viktor Orbán took power, only 23% of the country's 50 wealthiest people remained on the list, as the regime moved to consolidate power by bankrupting or eliminating rivals.

In Russia, nominally private companies like Gazprom function as direct extensions of the state. Their international investments are designed not just for profit but to achieve geopolitical goals, creating a system where foreign policy, business interests, and the personal wealth of the ruling class are completely inseparable.

The old model of a censor red-penning articles is outdated. The new strategy, seen in Hungary and Turkey, involves the state helping political allies acquire newspapers and TV stations, thereby controlling the narrative at the ownership level.

Don't expect corporate America to be a bulwark for democracy. The vast and growing wealth gap creates an overwhelming incentive for CEOs to align with authoritarians who offer a direct path to personal enrichment through cronyism, overriding any commitment to democratic principles.

Tech executives like Tim Cook, who attend White House events after state-sponsored killings, are immune to moral shaming. The only effective leverage against their complicity is threatening their company's stock price, as shareholder value is their primary, and perhaps only, motivator.