Whether industrial policy is a radical new experiment or a tradition as American as mass shootings, liberals are not the only ones excited about it. Finally, it seems, the government is getting serious about its national economic role. Rather, it is integral to the economic program, baked into it by the correct judgement on the part of US leaders that in the current, decelerating global economic environment, national growth must come at the expense of other nations. Meanwhile, developments on the domestic front could eventually unravel the entire project to reorient the economy around industrial policy. As the outcome of a dysfunctional process of elite improvisation, such an "industrial policy" has no rational basis, and cannot be rationally justified.

Source: New York Times July 04, 2023 23:17 UTC