This week, Chris, Zack, and Melanie talk about a new report, “Rebuild: Toolkit for a New American Industrial Policy,” from the Center for a New American Security. The United States government has a number of ways to intervene in the economy to advance the national interest. The use of tariffs and the Defense Production Act by the last two administrations, as well as passage of the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, are measures that some argue will help the United States compete more aggressively with China. Should the United States have an industrial policy? What objectives should an industrial policy serve, and how is that determined? How would such a policy be implemented?
Zack gives a shoutout to the Institute for the Study of War for helping us better understand the war in Ukraine, Chris praises Cornell University Press executive editor Roger Haydon on his retirement, and Melanie suggests a good read on how the United States and Taiwan can best prepare the island for a Chinese invasion.