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The US government is seeking stakes in Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, among other firms:
Similarly, a few months ago, the Trump administration approved Nippon Steel's acquisition of US Steel contingent on the USG receiving a golden share that gives it considerable supervisory authority:
It's an interesting turn for the traditionally market-oriented, small government party to start making a play for the commanding heights of the economy. The Federal government has a long history of giving out subsidies as a matter of policy, but it generally hasn't tried to assert an actual stake in recipient businesses (it will sometimes assume control of failing institutions, but this is generally an emergency measure rather than a long term plan).
Stupid government scope creep is fine when my favorite team does it!
I think if you're pro Trump doing this you also need to consider you're implicitly pro Kamala doing this, do you think that sounds good?
Because in 4-8 years the blue tribe might start doing it too, and this is a silly road to go down.
It's definitely a move away from New England Finance's control over the party
Profoundly, this is a risk for every government in perpetuity
Yes, I'm not sure but I have serious doubts as to their ability to make better choices than businesses now. If they could, planned economies would have a way better track record than they do.
Yes.
I can kind of think of a Steelman here where government shareholdings in major national champions could enhance corporate governance and specifically help align business and government interests over the long term, but I give this roughly a 0% chance of happening with the current status of western governance institutional skill.
Feels like everyone in the political class finally woke up to China's industrial results and going "oh fuck maybe there was something to be said for this" and are now trying to cargo-cult-government to replicate.
My rules > your rules, fairly > your rules, unfairly.
"My rules" would be no government control of companies. "Your rules, fairly" would be that all political sides get to have the government control companies. "Your rules, unfairly" means that only the left gets to do it.
The answer to this is the same as the answer to a lot of similar things: The left broke the norms so much that the only choices are to do so equally or to do so only for the left. And doing it equally is better. The option of not doing it at all would be the best, but the left has foreclosed that option.
My rules are also "no government control of companies."
I'm pretty equitable, I think the motivations and intellectual caliber of both the left and right are stupid as fuck. Americans are of course, as with many things, at the cutting edge of this trend.
I find your response quite fascinating. It strikes me that both American parties in a multi-turn prisoners dilemma game where the payoff for "defect" is a temporary gain in political power, which is then offset by the other side doing the same thing, and american governance/institutions/leadership being overall degraded as a result. Both sides are so myopic they seem to only have the capacity to smash the "defect" button over and over again, as American institutions rot, economic and military dominance over the world wanes, and the government gets worse and worse at doing... anything.
And your response to this is "yes! Smash the defect button before they do! Smash it!!!"
I know you don't want to be the first one to cooperate while the other side defects and gets a leg up, but damn, you must all realize this isn't going to end well for your children right?
Smashing the defect button in response to someone who always defects is the correct move.
Kind of?
Until you're both way worse off at the end of it all. Although I guess you're both worse off together.
Would much prefer an unwinding of the political cold war and a commitment towards shared prosperity (as that's worked quite well for the last 10,000 years) but that brings us back to "the current crop of western political leaders are myopic morons"
And exactly how are you going to do that?
By forming an orthogonal coalition with other people willing to press the "cooperate" button. "Orthogonal" meaning you cluster around a set of self-consistent values that are split between the current political coalitions. For example, if I had the charisma and moral fortitude, I'd try and pull together a movement that concedes to the left-wing economics of the liberation theology catholics but promotes the right-wing moral culture of the tradcaths. We'd advocate something like an open-borders welfare state, but with brutal enforcement of moral orthodoxy to discourage leeches from coming here. (I'm a morally spineless neoliberal currently, but compromise means being willing to give stuff up.)
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Genuinely I have no idea
I'm willing to be the first to cooperate vs defect as I believe in the power of human win/win coordination
But I am a single human with 0 political power
Honestly I'm mildly a doomer about all of this, I just refuse to say "fuck it" and embrace the zero sum game
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