Rage, do we?
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.
I’m still wondering if Trump had an important reason for doing this.
Hmmm...it’s apparently lost on the author that socialism so greatly resembles fascism.
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.
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.
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.
Gummit has no place owning businesses.
Charles C.W. Cooke was a never Trumper.
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?
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.
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.
On X
“Clint Betts
@clintbetts
Replying to
@charlescwcooke
Obama literally did this.
Under his administration, the United States took a 60% stake in GM and Chrysler and then sold it at a $10.7 billion loss to taxpayers.
Bad policy then, bad policy now.
But what Obama did was so much worse”.
First thing they should do is send the thousands of H1Bs packing back to India.
I’m in favor of creating several clones of Rand Paul!!!
—— so there are enough to form a circular firing squad
Well, first he hit the stock value by attacking the CEO, and then bought in at the bottom. Maybe time for a shareholder suit against the US government for stock manipulation.
Seems like this is the LITERAL definition of fascism. Leftists have been screaming he’s a fascist which has been laughably ignorant, but he finally did something worthy of the literal meaning. I’m not too worried about it from that perspective, but it’s a bad idea, IMO. The more government controls something, the worse it gets.
Broken clock moment: I agree with a NR drone.