[vundercind]

This is kinda true, even with a generous take on the CIA: they don’t want rogue freebooters screwing with their plans—why, you might destabilize a democracy they weren’t planning to replace with a dictatorship!

But also the trading reputation of a country is kinda a common good that individuals can profit by tarnishing, which makes it a prime target for very-valid and probably-a-good-idea regulation of that sort.

[mr_toad]

So a state monopoly on soft power as well as hard power. Makes sense.