This is an interesting piece essentially showing "Commanding Heights" style industrial policy is accelerating globally, after being declared dead at the close of the last century. It's surely a reaction to the world we live in, but what does it means for neoliberalism across the world?
Posted by sayheykid24
4 Comments
honestly kinda worried about the freedom aspect of all this.. governments don’t exactly have the best track record when they start controlling too many industries.
How many times does it have to be shown that central planning does not work (or I should say, in the long term is less efficient) before we finally believe it?
Depends on what they’re trying to do…
If they’re funding research and offering subsidies/making purchases such that they produce at least a bare minimum of security-critical items it’s actually a good thing (because national security is actually important). But if they’re subjecting businesses to arbitrary rule by the government, it’s a bad thing.
I work for a company that is a recipient of quite a bit of industrial policy $ in the US in the critical minerals industry. On this issue I think the Trump admin has done a couple smart things (making many bets on different companies), but also some very dumb things like investing gov dollars in companies backed by Trump Jr’s fund and making the wrong kinds of investments.
On the last point for instance, the price floors or something similar are probably good, but should be industry wide. Large loans to small companies are also a strategy I think is unlikely to work, but would be glad to be proven wrong. NDAA requirements to use non-chinese magnets and other critical materials for defense applications are good, but I’m worried they’ll just give everyone exemptions. It’s a hard problem and they’re at least changing what the gov thinks is possible.
That being said so nobody here gets the wrong picture. I have never voted for Trump and will never vote for Trump. He’s a threat to US democracy and now world peace.