That would be the regulatory classes. That combination of politicians and those associated with politics who gain so much from the political regulation of the economy.

Cage fighting tycoon and close Donald Trump ally Dana White has joined the board of Mark Zuckerberg’s tech empire Meta.

Mr White’s appointment was announced on Monday and comes as Silicon Valley seeks to build closer links to Mr Trump ahead of his return to the White House.

The cage fighting tycoon’s appointment was also confirmed days after Sir Nick Clegg announced he was leaving Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Sir Nick is said to have earned somewhere between £25 and £80 million from his days at Facebook. His job was to run political interference for the company. Now that the regime has changed it is necessary to have someone with a different coloured political coat to do that blocking job.

This is an obvious outcome of the entry of politics - and politicians - into regulating Facebook. The company will, entirely reasonably, react by having someone from the correct class and set of contacts to deal with the importuning. As the political wheel turns that definition of “correct” changes.

Who, specifically, benefits from this changes with the twists of electoral politics. But the group, the class, benefits from the extension of politics into the economy. Therefore the incentive for each member of the class, as well as the class collectively, is to increase the effrontery with which the influence of said class intervenes into the economy. Because it creates a whole raft of jobs for the boys and gals. And let’s face it, it’s only necessary to have a few years of such employment to gain generational wealth, right?

This is, obviously, possible to describe as a cynical view. We prefer the description “realist”. For this really is what happens. As a new sector of the economy becomes more prominent there are increasingly whining insistences that it “must be regulated”. The effect of which is to produce a number of sinecures for those who regulate. Both in doing the regulating and in reacting to it.

The answer is, of course, not to allow such regulation. Not to allow the vampire squid class to jam their blood funnels into yet more of life.

This other example is perhaps more rumour than fact, and yet. Some years back there was a new series of regulations about certain minerals from a particular geographic area. Just the first year’s implementation cost $4 billion. The rumour we’ve heard is that a prime campaigner for this new set of rules now makes a solid income - some millions a year - consulting to companies on how to comply with the new regulations. The actual problem on the ground is just as it always was. This is not an addition to the wealth of nations despite the individual benefits.

One of the problems - one of - with regulation is who benefits from it. It’s near enough to make one Marxist about class interests….

Tim Worstall