What are we doing? I'm certain none of our leaders have the faintest clue.
Slotkin lays out national security vision focused on middle-class priorities
“While some items, like Rubik’s Cubes and ladies’ razors, will never again be made in the U.S., critical items like pharmaceuticals, chips, and autos should be made, at least in part, in the U.S.,” she said. “China has weaponized these supply chains, giving them a veto on our economy that we should not accept.”
There are two problems with this, though.
The first is that ensuring that " critical items like pharmaceuticals, chips, and autos [are] made, at least in part, in the U.S" doesn't actually solve the problem if the critical items depend in part on components or raw materials that can be obtained only from the PRC (or perhaps only from the BRICS countries?), since if China cuts off the supply of those, the factories grind to a halt.
The second is that building factories and supply chains requires investors and suppliers who are confident doing business with the US, and Trump is doing a very good job of destroying that confidence, with his mercurial policy on tariffs, seemingly changing them on a whim, and his undermining confidence in the US's legal and financial systems with his attempts to rule by decree and his favouritism and corruption when dealing with large corporations.
I'm reminded of the apparent paradox that, during the C17th and C18th, London and Amsterdam came to dominate banking and the stocks and insurance markets, and were able to finance rapid imperial expansion, while Spain, the major and most wealthy European power, with its huge and lucrative empire in the Americas, fell further and further behind.
The reason, at least in part, was that London and Amsterdam were seen as more reliable places to do business, since the English and Dutch courts were trusted impartially to uphold contracts, and their governments to grant and uphold licences, reasonably impartially and without too much corruption. In contrast, anyone doing business in Spain depended very much on their relationship with the king and his favoured courtiers.
arstechnica.com
evanhurst.substack.com
www.theatlantic.com
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