Yves here. Richard Vague describes how exports and manufacturing prowess have long depended on considerable government support for basic research. If the US wants to tame its trade deficit, more Federal funding of foundational R&D is a win-win, because it will also create higher-skilled, well-paid jobs. But the US is allergic to having an industrial policy, even though we have one by default via particular sectors getting lavish tax breaks, subsidies, and direct spending, such as real estate, arms-makers, Big Finance, and health care.
By Richard Vague, Acting Secretary of Banking and Securities, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Chair, The Governor’s Woods Foundation. Originally published at Democracy: A Journal of Ideas; cross posted from the Institute for New Economic Thinking website
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Taken altogether, US President-elect Joe Bidenâs cabinet is a decidedly mixed bag that has left many Democrats confused as to whether the new administration will really challenge an entrenched economic and political system, or revert to the complacency of the Clinton and Obama years that helped deliver the White House to Donald Trump.
As Bidenâs picks have been trotted out, even while the outgoing President Donald Trump continues to challenge Bidenâs historic and resounding victory, the picture has only gotten fuzzier.
Some are familiar faces popping up in strange places. Former national security adviser and United Nations ambassador Susan Rice, who built her entire career on foreign policy, is to be chief domestic policy adviser. Denis McDonough, who has never served in the military, will head Veterans Affairs. And a recently retired US Army general, Lloyd Austin, has been nominated to run a Defence Department meant to be led by civilians.