The reason for that is simple: the British state is big and getting bigger but as an agent of change it is not up to the job. This is true at both central and local levels. Over the years, the capacity of government to intervene has been pared back and professional expertise has been lost as council services have been outsourced.
Government officials in Hangzhou have grand ambitions to make their city in eastern China a global center for artificial intelligence-and the funds to try to make it happen. In June, they pledged $140 million to subsidize AI firms that operate in town. Not to be outdone, Shanghai promptly followed in July with its own $140 million subsidy program, and inaugurated an "AI innovation town" two months later with low-cost office space for start-ups in the sector.
"Government intervention in the economy in the name of national security is most clearly warranted in cases of market failure," a new report from a bipartisan task force organized by the Council on Foreign Relations says. "Today, the market failures that loom largest for U.S. national security are shortfalls of private capital in strategically important areas and over-concentration of critical supply chains in unfriendly countries," the report adds.
A recent Wall Street Journal report has sparked major renewed interest in the quantum computing sector, claiming that President Trump is pushing for the U.S. government to acquire ownership stakes in several key players. According to the Journal, discussions involve Rigetti Computing ( NASDAQ:RGTI ), D-Wave Quantum ( ), IonQ ( ), and Quantum Computing ( NASDAQ:QUBT ), with each company potentially receiving federal funding in exchange for equity. The report suggests this move aims to bolster U.S. leadership in quantum technology amid global competition.
When you are facing a nonmarket economy like China, then you have to exercise industrial policy, Bessent said. The Treasury Secretary explained that China has put rare earth mineral companies out of business by massively dropping their own prices. We're going to set price floors and the forward buying to make sure that this doesn't happen again, and we're going to do it across a range of industries, he said.
The White House has confirmed that the Trump administration is in talks with Intel about acquiring a stake of up to 10% in the chipmaker. "The president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday after days of media speculation over a possible deal. Although it would be unusual for the US government to take a stake in such a large company, it would align with President Donald Trump's trend of intervening in the free market during his second term.
