‘Terrible Idea’: Conservatives Rage Over Trump’s ‘Socialist’ Intel Purchase

Mediate ^ | Aug 23 | Isaac Schorr

[RandFan]

Rand being on the same page as Trump lasted a day or two !

[BenLurkin]

Rage, do we?

[pierrem15]

Libertarians utterly reject industrial policy even though their mercantilist industrial policies are what made China, Japan, Taiwan and SK into first-rank industrial nations, and the US allowing them to get away with it has impoverished the US.

[Jamestown1630]

I’m still wondering if Trump had an important reason for doing this.

[gundog]

Hmmm...it’s apparently lost on the author that socialism so greatly resembles fascism.

[Owen]

FYI, the Swiss National Bank is a huge shareholder of Apple.

The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund is a huge shareholder of Nestles.

Did you all really think capitalism is what solved the 2009 crisis? The Fed’s printing of Trillions? Does that look like capitalism?

Oh, and BTW, the Fed can now buy corporate bonds, by the Trillions. That means government lends money to companies with which to operate.

Look, when a system is teetering, the source of infinite money is the only answer — because Capitalism has already failed.

[iamgalt]

Hmm, l don’t see any “rage”

[Jim W N]

Outside of a verified Defense Contract, this is utterly unconstitutional and should be STOPPED OR REVERSED!!

Trump still needs to learn more about federal gov’t constitutional limitations.

[one guy in new jersey]

While you’re wondering you might as well put money down, betting that he does.

The dude whistles Dixie less than any other world leader in recent history.

[faithhopecharity]

technincally, it isn’t socialism - its fascism.
but almost the same thing, really.

I do not ordinarily support more government involvement in anything much more than defense.

If this step was really necessary to keep Intel in business in USA, then OKay. We need this technology (including for defense). Besides, a government that kept us sitting on the hallway floor outside the Sociable Insecurity office for 7 hours just to show a driver license to a clerk, is not a paragon of managerial proficiency. And why couldn’t our immense private capital markets have taken care of this? Are our capital markets as Kaput as Intel allegedly was??? This could be the larger story, really...

I will want to see the feds sell the shares to American investors ASAP.

[unclebankster]

I haven’t examined this deal, but would like to know where conservative outrage has been on companies that are involved in national defense?

Those companies are “up to their ass” in government control, financing, & involvement.

[bray]

Gummit has no place owning businesses.

[GOPJ]

It's 1939 and we're buying all our tanks from Germany and Poland because no one else makes them...What's YOUR call?

[Beowulf9]

Charles C.W. Cooke was a never Trumper.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I agree - this is an absolutely terrible way for us to go as a country. Government ownership of the means of production?? What the hell is that?

[miliantnutcase]

Look at it this way- Trump is recouping the billions handed out to Intel from the CHIPS Act. For those that don’t know- Intel is the only US company that has their own fabrication plants and do not rely on Taiwan for fabs.

[RandFan]

You’re correct about the labels the author is using.

[Mariner]

This is about America First, not Conservative Orthodoxy.

America needs to be able to make all the chips we require for enterprise and defense. It’s no different than energy or agriculture.

If that requires state investment, tariffs and regulation...so be it.

Conservatism without Nationalism is like Faith without Works.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Look, when a system is teetering, the source of infinite money is the only answer — because Capitalism has already failed.

This is exactly the kind of bogus reasoning Hayek warned about in The Road to Serfdom. To the extent there are "failures", why not put the blame where it belongs - on bad interventionist government policies that took us further away from capitalism in the first place?

The solution to the failures of government intervention is not MORE government intervention. Because that approach has no rational stopping point, and ends only when government owns everything.

[ConservativeMind]

The US always had a requirement for two Intel or Intel-compatible companies on US soil. That second one was AMD. AMD would not have been allowed to go into bankruptcy, but was also never economically supported, to my knowledge. What is happening with Intel is comparatively bizarre.

That said, the US has consistently “invested” in companies. Ones we rant over include Solyndra. States give all sorts of money or land to companies to move and set up shop. All of these are the same exact sort of economic support from various levels of government. Even tariffs serve as that incentive.

Taking formal slice of a company is really just the same thing in a different manner. However, stock ownership actually leaves value to the taxpayer immediately within the government's “hand.” All of these other approaches are never assured anything good comes back to government in the short term, or ever. Stock ownership is an immediate and fungible way of taking something while giving something of the exact same value.

As one with libertarian leanings, I initially am loathe to the idea of US government ownership, but why shouldn't the government have something guaranteed to let it exit with little risk and little hassle?

It makes sense to me in our world of so many other ways to “encourage” business to stay or grow in the US.

But it must remain a very limited scope and really only to assure we have the defensive industries to keep going after Democrats and liberal Republicans sold the country out to our enemies, leaving us naked and afraid to want our independence back from China, Taiwan, Japan, etc. in being able to assure we can insource everything we need to keep growing as a country.