A bit more seriously here: 1) IPfizer's partner, BioNTech received $ from the German government: biospace.com/article/bionte… 2) Relatedly, CV19 vaccine development has been a truly global effort, & certainly governments have been/will be involved: cato.org/blog/covid-19-…
That said, it looks like BioNTech's German govt subsidy was for domestic (in GER) manufacturing capacity, not R&D, & came after the vaccine was developed: reuters.com/article/health…
Of course, $$ is fungible, but (if that news is correct) they surely would've done the R&D anyway
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ICYMI: Yesterday I recapped the recent, and uniformly-negative, assessments of 3+ years of "America First" trade & industrial policy cato.org/blog/checking-…
I didn't get into the weeds in that post and instead let the headlines do the heavy-lifting, but here are the general conclusions for those who don't subscribe and/or are lazy: /2
1) Steel tariffs didn't work: they boosted prices & goosed investment short-term, BUT 1) caused real damage to steel-consuming manufacturers, exporters hit by retaliation, & "rust belt" state economies; & 2) steelcos started shedding jobs/factories when the sugar high faded /3
Quick thread on this: unless you're notorious car-guy @ModeledBehavior, you maybe didn't notice that COVID-19 has increased US demand for, but crippled N. American production of, pickup trucks. Now, even as US truckmakers are going full-tilt, supply is short & prices are HIGH /1
(Demand for sedans/SUVs has also surged, but the shortages/prices don't appear to be as bad.)
So why, you might ask, are Americans only buying trucks made in MX/CAN/USA, when there are all sorts of cool options made elsewhere (see, eg, these bad boys hotcars.com/20-foreign-pic…)? /2
Well, there are 25% tariffs on those trucks, which effectively block imports from non-NAFTA countries.
By contrast, tariffs on cars/SUVs/vans are 2.5% (or duty-free for FTAs), & we have many more options.
This difference has had predictable results during the pandemic. /3
Key finding: "Accounting for all taxpayers, I find that tax filing in the U.S. imposes a yearly cost in excess of 1% of GDP and that this cost has been steadily increasing since the 1980s"
"How Apprenticeship, Reimagined, Vaults Graduates Into Middle Class" wsj.com/articles/how-a…
Neat look at the employer-funded FAME program (started by Toyota & others), which promotes modern ("grey collar") skills w/out a college degree. Love that last line.
Also noteworthy from that WSJ story: a foreign-owned auto company (which relies on domestic/imported inputs) started the FAME program, AND the highlighted FAME graduate (Mr. Brown) worked for an industry (beverage cans) harmed by... aluminum tariffs.