2023-02-09
50 分钟For decades, the U.S. let globalization run its course and hoped China would be an ally. Now the Biden administration is spending billions to bring high-tech manufacturing back home. Is this the beginning of a new industrial policy — or just another round of corporate welfare?
Just to give you a sense for it, for a long time, the budget of the Commerce Department has been approximately.
$10 billion, which in Washington is spare.
Change, which is not a ton of money.
Exactly.
Now I am managing about 150 billion.
That is Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce in the Biden administration.
What we are trying to do here really hasnt been done in decades in the United States, if ever, in terms of the size and scale of it and level of complexity.
And what are they trying to do between the three big pieces of legislation passed in President Bidens first two years, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction act, and the Chips and Science act, the Democrats are trying to fundamentally reshape american industrial policy.
Today on free economics radio.
With all those billions to disperse, how do we know it'll be put to its best use and doesn't become just another round of corporate welfare?
This isn't corporate welfare.
This is an investment to achieve a set of national security goals to keep America safe.
We hear from another senior administration official about why the timing is so important.
Our national and economic security depends on it.
And what about the big bet the US made on treating China like an ally?
That bet is no longer defensible.
Make America great again is the other teams slogan, but it sure feels like the democratic White House is running with it.
Well, get the inside view, starting right now.
This is Freakonomics radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything with your host, Stephen Dubner.
You may have noticed we don't do a lot of politics on this show, and we don't interview a lot of politicians.