Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy.

Cronyism exists when the appointer and the beneficiary are in social contact; often, the appointer is inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointer appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointer. Politically, "cronyism" is derogatorily used.

The word "crony" first appeared in 18th century London, according to the Oxford English Dictionary to be derived from the Greek word χρόνιος (chronios), meaning "long-term".

The word crony also appears in the 1811 edition of Grose's Vulgar Tongue with a decidedly non-collegiate definition, placing it firmly in the cant of the underworld. Another oft-quoted source is the supposed Irish term Comh-Roghna [koˈronə], said to translate as "close pals", or mutual friends. However, this term apparently originated with Daniel Cassidy (fabricator of many fake Irish terms) and is completely unknown in the Irish language. (See Ó Dónaill's Irish-English Dictionary p. 288, where the term is conspicuously absent). It also makes no sense in terms of the morphology of the word rogha - if the word existed, the plural would be comhroghanna, not comh-roghna.

Mark Reed Levin (born September 21, 1957) is a lawyer, author and the host of American syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show. Levin served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese. He is president of the Landmark Legal Foundation, has authored bestselling books and contributes commentary to various media outlets such as National Review Online.

Mark Reed Levin was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Cheltenham High School after three years. After high school, Levin enrolled at Temple University Ambler including summer classes and graduated in 1977 at age 19, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He also earned a juris doctorate from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1980.

Beginning in 1981, Levin served as advisor to several members of President Ronald Reagan's cabinet, eventually becoming Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and ultimately Chief of Staff to Attorney General Edwin Meese; Levin also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and Deputy Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Books were an American duo, formed in New York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their releases typically incorporate samples of obscure sounds and speech. They have released three critically acclaimed albums on the German label Tomlab, and released their fourth studio album, The Way Out, on Temporary Residence Limited in July 2010.

Zammuto and de Jong first met in New York City in 1999 as they shared the same apartment building. De Jong invited Zammuto to dinner at his apartment, where he played him some of his collection of audio and video samples, including a Shooby Taylor record. Zammuto said of their meeting that "we both kind of knew at that moment that we listened (to music) in interesting ways and had similar approaches to music." Soon after, they began playing what they considered to be pop music, in comparison to their own works, under the name The Books.

In 2000, The Books started work on what would become their début album Thought for Food. Zammuto and de Jong moved locations constantly during this time, recording in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and finally in the basement of a hostel in North Carolina where Zammuto worked for a while after hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Eric O'Keefe (born March 11, 1961) is an American author, editor, and journalist based in Texas. His most recent book is The Cup, and he currently serves as the editor-in-chief of The Land Report.

Born in Paris, the youngest of seven children to Arthur and Julia O'Keefe, O'Keefe is a graduate of Alpine High School (Alpine, Texas) and Rice University. Upon receiving his bachelor's degree in History and Political Science, O'Keefe was awarded an LBJ Fellowship by House Minority Whip Tom Loeffler (TX-21) and worked in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 99th Congress.

The author or co-author of seven non-fiction works, O'Keefe's The Cup (2009) is the story of Damien Oliver's dramatic victory on Media Puzzle in the world's richest and most prestigious two-mile handicap, the Melbourne Cup. The week before the race, Damien's only brother, Jason, died following a track accident in Perth while riding an unraced horse at Ascot Racecourse. The tragedy bore a haunting similarity to the death of their father, Ray Oliver, who died in 1975 after a racing fall in the Boulder Cup in Kalgoorlie. Damien's decision to honor his brother by returning and competing in Australia's greatest race culminated in Media Puzzle's emotion-charged victory, which has been rated one of the memorable moments in Australian sports history. The chestnut gelding was bred in the U.S. by Walter Haefner's Moyglare Stud and trained in Ireland by Dermot Weld for owners Donald Keough and Michael Smurfit. O'Keefe traveled to Australia, Dubai, and Ireland to research The Cup, which was published in Australia by Slattery Media and launched in the Committee Room at Flemington Racecourse on August 4, 2009.

Clifford Scott 'Cliff' Asness (born October 17, 1966) is the cofounder of AQR capital (top US hedge Fund) and a quantitative financial theorist.

After graduating with dual degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Cliff Asness entered the finance PhD program at the University of Chicago and became the research assistant to Eugene Fama, the influential efficient market theorist and empiricist. Asness' dissertation, however, showed that consistent market-beating profits were attainable by exploiting value and momentum. In this context, value means using fundamental analysis to assess the true worth of a security and momentum means betting that it will continue to go up or down as it has in the recent past. Neither idea is original with Asness, but he was the first to compile enough empirical evidence across a wide variety of markets to bring the ideas into the academic financial mainstream. The two ideas are supposed to work together. Value investors make money, but may have to wait a very long time for it, with a lot of mark-to-market pain along the way. Momentum investors also make money, but can suffer huge drawdowns when bubbles pop. Buying cheap things after they have already started going up, and selling expensive things after they have already started going down, can be the best of both worlds. However, the strategy for accumulation is subject to the same constraints as any other and systemic effects in markets can invalidate it: AQR and other similar ventures lost massive amounts of wealth in the Financial crisis of 2007-2010.