"It is no limitation upon property rights or freedom of contract to require that when men receive from government the privilege of doing business under corporate form... they shall do so upon absolutely truthful representations.... Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions."
Theodore Roosevelt from his first Message to Congress, December 3, 1901. Quoted in Theodore Rex Edmund Morris p73
Teddy fired the first gun in the fight against corporate power in government and the economy. He put teeth into the Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890, and developed the principles upon which the battles would be fought.
The 'institutions' to which he referred are the government, as well as the society and civilization at large. These are also the roads and bridges and schools and hospitals that President Obama rightly reminds businessmen they didn't build.
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