2024 was a productive year for the industrial policy and trade work @rooseveltinst! Here's a thread 🧵with a few of the highlights. First, "Industrial Policy 2025: Bringing the State Back In (Again)." @lenorepalladino @JonasAlgers @andreafurnaro @Kyunghoon_Kim_ & @cfrosado show what IP beyond tax credits might look like.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/i…

Biden blocks Nippon's acquisition of US Steel, per
@JStein_WaPo and @davidjlynch.

A brief thread 🧵 on this decision, and why it matters.
washingtonpost.com/business/2025/… The decision followed a split recommendation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), an interagency body set up under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to evaluate national security risks to cross-border mergers.
law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50…

NEW from @rooseveltinst!

How Industrial Policy Gets Done: Frontline Lessons from Three Federal Officials

I interviewed @katenrg @RonnieChatterji & Satyam Khanna about their time helping set up the offices that are building middle-out economics.
🧵
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/h… For arguably the first time since the Roosevelt administration, there's an acknowledged and massive effort to influence the composition and practices of industries operating in the US.

Trillions in public and private capital are moving into communities all over the 🇺🇸.

In an election year where both political parties have deployed tariffs as a tool of statecraft, @DemJournal asked @ENPancotti @mattyglesias and me to debate the pros and cons, when tariffs work, and when they are damaging.
🧵
democracyjournal.org/magazine/74/ar… Liz and I were assigned the "pro-tariff" side of the debate, though we offer caveats.

Our main argument is that it's too easy to put tariffs in a politics/public choice box, when in fact there are long established market failure reasons for their use.

NEW from me @rooseveltinst:

Why This Matters: Section 301 Tariffs on Electric Vehicles.

The White House just announced new trade restrictions on a variety of Chinese imports.

What's this all about?

A thread🧵🧵🧵

rooseveltinstitute.org/2024/05/14/sec… Section 301 is an important component of US trade laws going back to 1974.

It gives the US government additional tools to use when trade agreements aren't as effective as they need to be.
crsreports.congress.gov/product/detail…

Fantastic panel @HarvardMWC on lessons we can learn from global experiences with industrial policy, with @rodrikdani @straightedge @myrto_kaloup and @rohlamba.

Myrto talking Chinese shipbuilding excess capacity. Has 50-70% market share today. Conference organized by @Rohan_Sandhu. Details here.
hks.harvard.edu/centers/wiener…

NEW from me @RooseveltFwd: How Biden's comments on US Steel's tie up with Japan's Nippon company indicate what a Foreign Policy for the Middle Class might look like in practice.
rooseveltforward.org/2024/04/03/bid… The idea of reorienting foreign economic policy to build labor power and combat inequality was articulated by @JakeSullivan46 @jennifermharris and others in a series of essays and reports in 2019-20.
foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/07/ame…

BREAKING from @AP: @Energy agency announces $6 billion to slash emissions in industrial facilities.

@JenMcDermottAP @anniesartor @SecGranholm @alizaidi46 and me on why this is game changing, and could allow the US to catch up/ lead on industrial decarb.
apnews.com/article/climat… The mix of projects funded here is exciting, including a range of technologies to be deployed by US leader @CLE_CLF, and even projects by Sweden's SSAB.
energy.gov/oced/industria…

"EVEN IF YOU’RE CONVINCED that unionized labor is sclerotic and expensive and an impediment to production, cutting them out creates the very real risk of losing the coalition necessary to sustain green industrial policy."
@ddayen responds to @ezraklein.
prospect.org/economy/2023-0… I am sympathetic to Klein's wish to live in a society with more corporatist labor arrangements.
https://t.co/5jiumaovWrnytimes.com/2023/07/16/opi…

Want government that builds super fast, without the pesky guardrails of civil society input, local government consultation, or environmental or safety permitting?

Ladies and gentlemen, Erdogan's Turkey.

Via @suzyhans @NewYorker.
newyorker.com/magazine/2023/… The last 70 years of development economics has been technocrats & engineers slowly learning that you can't wish away politics and institutions. If your developmental strategy can't work politically and institutionally, it can't work.

See @Isabel_Estevez_.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/u…

The Biden administration just released guidance on the domestic content bonus for the Inflation Reduction Act's clean energy subsidies.

What's this all about?

Read-along thread on these latest Made-in-America incentives.

home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel… Here are reactions from @SecYellen @SecGranholm @SecretaryPete, noting the boom in clean energy investments and production, that will now have incentives to use domestic supply chains.

So much good in this piece by @djrothkopf:

How Bidenomics Has Finally Defeated Reaganomics.

Digs deep on work by @JakeSullivan46 @jennifermharris and others.
thedailybeast.com/how-bidenomics… "Some old school economists who have been peddling the failed or damaging policies the administration has sought to undo decried the fact that the new approaches represented too much meddling with markets by government officials.

But of course, that is just the point."

What is the Biden administration’s international economic agenda?

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (@JakeSullivan46) kicks off a @BrookingsInst talk on the New Washington Consensus. Elements of new thinking:

- Markets don't always allocate capital in socially optimal ways
- Trade liberalization shouldn't be pursued for its own sake
- Privileging finance over real economy was a mistake
- Economic integration doesn't lead to alignment on other values

ICYMI - @Isabel_Estevez_ and me @rooseveltinst on the four takeaways from this week's industrial policy event.
rooseveltinstitute.org/2023/04/26/fou… 1. From @sameerafazili, Fixing economic vulnerabilities requires rebuilding administrative capacity.

“The private sector doesn’t have the tools, information, or sometimes the will to solve these systemically significant supply chain vulnerabilities.”
vimeo.com/821356837#t=10…

NEW REPORT @rooseveltinst:

"Industrial Policy Synergies: Reflections from Biden Administration Alumni," featuring essays from

@sameerafazili @JaneAFlegal @jennifermharris @janellecj @ksabeelrahman and @superwuster.

PLUS VIDEO, BLOG, & MORE.

🧵👇Thread
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/i… The US is embarking on a once-in-a-generations reshaping of our economy, to make it more equitable, sustainable, and resilient.

Industrial policy is the central tool, but this is an all-of-government enterprise. It needs supportive policies in other domains to be successful.

Yep, these are some of the biggest investments (including I believe the biggest one?) in US history, and rightly require suites of complementary policies and inputs.

This is economic development, not just widget maximization.

https://twitter.com/joeldodge07/status/1642515946895036416

On the list of things I am worrying about, governors not returning Intel's calls is not up there.

If that starts happening, or if firms that get subsidies dither or misuse resources, there are tools the feds have to fix this.
rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/p…

Addressing the #BuyCleanAmerica conference @ThirdWayTweet @BGAlliance :

@alizaidi46 on the role of climate office: We must remain focused on the political economy of what it takes to succeed, not just be greenhouse gas accountants. Panel on heavy industry decarbonization, with @Ben_Beachy, Christina Walrond, @hebahkassem , and Kevin Dempsey of @aisisteel, who notes the US steel industry is among the cleanest in the world, but that virgin steel will still be needed (and that probably requires CCUS).

What do collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature mean for Biden's industrial policy?

Over at @DemJournal, @STOmarova and I have thoughts, in this new essay:

Industrial Policy Requires Public, Not Just Private, Equity.

🧵👇
democracyjournal.org/arguments/indu… We argue that the turn to industrial policy can play a vital role in reconnecting finance to the real economy—but only if industrial policy is seen holistically as a comprehensive economic development strategy, and not just as a way to onshore the making of particular widgets.

"The US has adopted a simple strategy that immediately incentivises businesses to invest while the EU is coming with a political framework that lacks precise elements and misses simple, clear cut reasons for businesses to invest,” said Belgian chemicals company Solvay CEO.

https://twitter.com/AndyBounds/status/1638062854094897152

CEFIC trade association head:

"They don’t fund the building of a plant. They fund the day you start operating through tax breaks, so you actually make a profit,” he said. “The US has a business case and Europe makes a law . . .”

Opening the "Building the Green Transition", @rgunns kicks off a day of All Things Permitting. Anthony Rogers-Wright points out that NEPA is not the only problem when it comes to permitting.

NEW @ForeignAffairs from @FeliciaWongRI and me:

A Tale of Two Industrial Policies:

How America and Europe Can Turn Trade Tensions Into Climate Progress
foreignaffairs.com/united-states/… This year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland turned at times into a freeform airing of grievances by EU lawmakers over Biden's Inflation Reduction Act and the impact it could have on EU producers.
politico.com/news/2023/01/1…