Let's start with some scene setting. It’s difficult to overstate how rapid industrial policy’s rise has been in progressive thinking and US policy more broadly.
In 2019, we titled a report "Industrial Policy and Planning: What It Is and How to Do It Better," because we thought most readers wouldn't know what industrial policy was, or would be primed to think it couldn't work. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/i…
The @IMFNews put out a report around the same time that was titled "The Return of the Policy That Shall Not Be Named: Principles of Industrial Policy." imf.org/en/Publication…
In the time since our report, industrial policy became a leading component of new thinking and legislating. It's reflected in @BrianDeeseNEC's call for a modern American industrial strategy... whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Today’s industrial policy thinkers view the state as having a central role to play in resolving questions like which industries rise and fall, how are they structured, and how they produce the goods and services our citizens need.
Building off decades of organizing through the global justice movement, Occupy Wall Street, and the Green New Deal, the last 20 months have seen a number of major wins for green industrial policy:
As @SuzMKahn and @rgunns wrote, the scale of the climate crisis challenge means that all economic policy is climate policy. That’s as true for industrial policy and supply chains as it is for other policy domains. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/a…
As opening keynote @johnpodesta told us, the IRA is "the single most ambitious legislative measure ever to accelerate building a clean energy economy and to combat climate change." It also marks a sea-change in receptivity to the idea of industrial policy. vimeo.com/759233688#t=0m…
Takeaway 2: We need to rewrite the rules.
From @AmbassadorTai@USTradeRep keynote: "Trade has got to be about more than just unfettered liberalization, cheap goods, and maximizing efficiencies... We need to update the playbook and bring more people in." vimeo.com/759603256#t=4m…
Or as @hboushey46@WhiteHouseCEA said in her remarks, "We’ve come to the realization that markets need a little, and in some cases, a lot of help to make sure that the market delivers on goods and services that are in the national interest." vimeo.com/759579863#t=4m…
Takeaway 3: Equity is not a sideshow; it is central to all policy.
As @DalyLew@rgunns have noted, the Biden administration has committed to direct 40 percent of the “overall benefits” of federal investments in climate to disadvantaged communities. rooseveltinstitute.org/2022/04/18/a-n…
Taking up these themes, @TreasuryDepSec Wally Adeyemo said using government "to unleash the economic potential of communities that have too long faced barriers to their full participation is critical to building sustainable economic growth in this country" vimeo.com/759631745#t=3m…
Takeaway 4: Policy needs to build power.
Scholars from @awh and others finds that durable policies need feedback loops that both deliver material benefits and help build political constituencies and power to defend those policies against retrenchment. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/h…
Podesta in his remarks noted the IRA will give incentives for firms to work with unions, while @JigarShahDC of @ENERGY noted that government can help labor and capital develop win-win solutions.
In her remarks, @MaryKayHenry of @SEIU discussed the sector where the number of workers to be mobilized is the highest: the service sector. Here she offers ideas on an industrial policy for care and food service. vimeo.com/759904866#t=3m…
Takeaway 5: liberalism needs to learn to build again.
As @FeliciaWongRI said in her opening remarks, we're at a critical juncture: "what we do next locks in our next economy... This is going to hardwire power in place for at least a generation, and it will be much harder to rewire once that is in place." vimeo.com/showcase/98935…
Our Session 6 on implementation, led by @dylanmatt and some pretty amazing shoe game, went deep on building government capacity.
Leading a new fund to reshore the US CHIPS sector, @mikereedschmidt of @CommerceGov said, we "are now in the business of showing that government can deliver. That government can do big hard things [and] restore faith in public institutions.” vimeo.com/759596665#t=29…
A key part of the overall industrial policy is rebuilding the @IRSnews, where $$ comes and goes from. As @NatashaRSarin of @USTreasury said, the IRS needs a brand makeover as "the largest administrator of federal benefits in the government." vimeo.com/759596665#t=30…
While you're watching, pre-order our speaker @RanaForoohar's new book "Homecoming: The Path to Prosperity in a Post-Global World," a look ahead at what comes next for industrial policy, planning, and more. penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688161/h…
And also pick up "The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to a Shared Prosperity," the new book from our speaker @mtomasky that charts the recent history that led to this industrial policy moment. penguinrandomhouse.com/books/671443/t…
And finally, no @rooseveltinst event would be complete without thanking the workers that made it happen, including Roosevelt staff in @nyguild and event staff in @UHLocal25.
And Michelle Wilczynski and @stephsterlingdc have been snatching victory from jaws of defeat constantly for the last five weeks. Thanks to the whole @rooseveltinst team that threw down and in on this.
ICYMI -Chip manufacturer Micron announced plans to build a $100 billion factory near Syracuse that would create nearly 50,000 jobs– the largest semiconductor manufacturing investment in U.S. history. nytimes.com/2022/10/04/tec…
This investment alone is projected to bring US market share of chip production from less than 2% to over 10% in the next decade. whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
It will be especially interesting to track the progress of the $500 million investment in community and workforce development with a focus on disadvantaged populations: the so-called Green CHIPS Community Investment Fund. investors.micron.com/news-releases/…
Time to read up on the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services and Modes 1 and 2. Thanks to Summers, Geithner, and others, the GATS had some consequences for financial sector deregulation lock-in. Now it could matter more broadly for facilitating offshoring of remote work.
"For the first time since the modern era of climate politics began more than 30 years ago, the United States can credibly claim to be a leader on climate change." - @robinsonmeyer breaks down the ways the IRA will reshape global climate politics. theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
I am sympathetic to the view that - when the views of NGOs and elected officials (in legislatures, unions etc) conflict - policymakers should give a lot of deference to the latter.
But if we're going to be absolutist about this democratic theory principle on pipelines, we probably should be on student debt too.
With this nutty news cycle, neoliberal economists may have irreversibly burned the bridge to the only one of the two major US political parties that favors democracy and is against states subjecting half their population into forced labor.
And for what? We're hearing very public cries of fire over (potentially) interesting findings for an academic seminar, when there is a democracy-ravaging fire around the corner.
.@paulkrugman called this dynamic the "technocrat problem", whereby some Democratic economists are so "eager to display their independence by criticizing Biden" that they "overdo it — to criticize... policy proposals that... make sense" or are popular. nytimes.com/2022/02/22/opi…
Democrats Might Get Exceptionally Lucky This Fall, and They Should Be Ready for That- another great piece by @jbouie
GOP has lost generic congressional ballot lead & has flawed Senate candidates, while House Dems chances are about what Trump's were in '16 nytimes.com/2022/08/26/opi…
Bouie suggests we pivot from industrial policy to social policy, highlighting the child tax credit, reproductive rights, labor rights, and voting rights as priorities.
Yet, with the exception of voting, these could all be also conceived of as industrial policy, or related to IP.
As @stephsterlingdc and I wrote last year, industrial policy is any government policy that encourages resources to shift from one industry or sector into another, by changing input costs, output prices, or other regulatory treatment. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/a…