America Transformed
I tried to write this post directly to Google's Blogger. It'd be faster, right? Cut out the middle step (a word processor) between researching and publishing. Lean and mean and all that stuff. Yeah. Except I spent so much time trying to figure it out I lost the flick. So here I am, a week late and column short.
Once again, it was Paul Krugman that set me off. It was one of his newsletters. But there seems to be a difference between what I read in my email and what is published online.
This is his newsletter we're talking about (subscribe here), not his regular New York Times column. Anyway, as usual, he has a handy-dandy chart to make his point.
If you're my age, you can look into the future a little ways and see where this leads. Factories need workers. (Not as many as in times past. Think robots.) Workers need a place to live. And eat. And a place to school their kids. In other words, factories build towns. Or revive them. But first, let's look at why manufacturing is taking off.
Krugman's words should be next to that chart I posted above but, well, it's me. And this is how I do things.
"Another part of the answer may be that the Biden administration’s industrial policies — in effect, subsidies for semiconductors and green energy — have led to a boom in nonresidential investment, especially manufacturing. The numbers here are truly startling:..."
But why these industrial policies? What's with green energy and semiconductors? Krugman addresses that in yet another newsletter. (Yes, you need to be a subscriber to read it.)
"As I’ve written before, applying these critiques to Biden’s policy seems, sometimes willfully, to miss the point of what’s going on. The policy isn’t about picking winners and trying to accelerate growth. It’s about addressing threats that aren’t counted in conventional measures of the economy: The threat of climate change, the strategic risks created by an erratic, autocratic China."
It sounds pretty simple when you put it that way. It sort of makes you wonder why others don't (put it that way). And why isn't this message being shouted from the rooftops? Some things are more important than money. A climate we can survive in is one of them. It's all well and good that China can make computer chips cheaper than us...until you realize your whole economy and your national insurance policy -- the U.S. military -- depends on those chips, made by an entity that wants to replace you. It's about as dumb as making an enemy out of the farmer that feeds you. (But that's another blog post for another time.)
I feel like it's time to review: Joe Biden has transformed America while most of us weren't paying attention. After straightening out the COVID disaster (and overcoming "Democratic" Senator Joe Manchin) he gets the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act passed.
Literally trillions of dollars are now rushing into the economy -- money that will transform America and it's economy. It's a done deal. It will happen. The factories now under construction will soon be producing batteries for electric cars, the electric cars themselves and the computer chips that control them. (Not to mention wind turbines and solar panels to generate the power needed to run them.)
That's the policy side of all this. That is to say (in my humble opinion) the important part. But as I also say, unless you win at politics, you don't get to implement policy. Good public policy always wins. In the end. It's just that we don't want to wait for The End when it comes to Global Warming.
But the political side of all this might surprise you. For instance, check out this blurb from Wikipedia about the Inflation Reduction Act:
"It is a budget reconciliation bill sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).[3] The bill was the result of negotiations on the proposed Build Back Better Act, which was reduced and comprehensively reworked from its initial proposal after being opposed by Manchin.[4] It was introduced as an amendment to the Build Back Better Act and the legislative text was substituted. All Democrats in the Senate and House voted for the bill while all Republicans voted against it.[5][6]"
A battery plant in Kentucky. A chip factory in Ohio. Electric cars in Tennessee.
What do all three of those states have in common? That's right, they're Republican. And in case you didn't read that last line from Wikipedia: "All Democrats in the Senate and House voted for the bill while all Republicans voted against it." Yes, Mitch McConnell voted against a 5.8 billion-dollar plant that will employ 5,000 people in his state.
But we all know Mitch McConnell isn't stupid. Well, news flash, Joe Biden isn't stupid either. One of the biggest winners (if not the biggest) in all this? Georgia.
"The state has attracted eight projects worth $15.27 billion since the passage of a landmark federal climate bill."
Yes, Georgia is a Republican State. Actually, it would be more accurate to say Georgia has a Republican-controlled government. You just need to remember who Georgians voted into the White House. And the U.S. Senate.
Just in case you'd like to see all this industrial policy stuff plotted out on a map, click here. Or you can stare at this screen shot and get the gist of it.
Joe Biden has
transformed America's economy. He might have transformed America's
politics too. I'm told people vote their pocketbooks.
Don Brown
August 20, 2023
Comments