The US Government Is Now a Shareholder in 26 Companies

thisislife2

Have we come full circle now with China inspired by American Capitalism to create their own model of it, that now inspires the Americans to imitate the Chinese?

benoau

Isn't that just socialism without the social benefits?

Terr_

> Article research and generated imagery enabled by AI tools including Claude by Anthropic. *sigh*

throw0101d

Capitalism with American characteristics: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_with_Chinese_charact...

ChrisArchitect

Related today: OpenAI ‘in early talks to give 5% stake to US government’ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48759623

dolphinscorpion

Hey, we're gonna buy 10% of ....in a week. Thanks dad.

ck2

this is why democrats are so stupid to use the word socialist even though it's accurate sovereign funds, federal ownership making companies "too big to fail" is 100% socialism but republicans are devious enough to know not to call it that so do we get to idiotically slur the current administration and call them communists?

cjoelrun

Owning the means of production is so capitalist now...

dachworker

Corporate taxes don't work and taxing the rich is super hard. Could this be a way for the state to suplement tax revenue?

skybrian

If the US government got nonvoting shares in startups along with VC's then that could bring in lots of revenue from capital gains without calling it "taxes." If it were in return for a tax break then they might even do it voluntarily. The key would be to get in while valuation is low.

bilsbie

I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be against this but it seems like if the percentage is limited and they’re non voting shares then it should be ok. I guess preferential treatment could be the only issue?

asimpson

The investments listed here in the article make this seem like an effort to shore up or incentivize industries or companies that are integral to national defense. One example, in the ongoing US-China trade war one of the strongest moves China did was put [export controls on rare earth minerals][1] which are essential components across technology, defense, and healthcare to name a few. The government investing in these companies isn't ideal from a free enterprise perspective but seems rational from a national security perspective. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earths_trade_dispute

jdw64

If the left had done this, they would have been attacked for "socialism." But since it's a right wing administration doing it, it becomes "national security industrial policy." This isn't communism. It's state capitalism that socializes losses and privatizes profits. It's bad communism and bad capitalism at the same time. I'd like to call this 'Napoleonism,' after the pig Napoleon in George Orwell's Animal Farm

cryo32

VEB OpenAI next? Shall I dig out my Auferstanden aus Ruinen vinyl?

scottfits

i think an important nuance and the reason we don't suddenly have a sovereign wealth fund is it’s not a centralized US Gov buying stakes. It’s a bunch of different government entities using different pools of capital - Commerce dept: Intel, IBM quantum, GlobalFoundries, D-Wave, Rigetti, xLight - Dept of "war": MP Materials for rare earths, L3Harris rocket motors for munitions - Energy dept: Lithium Americas / Thacker Pass, Westinghouse nuclear - White House: U.S. Steel golden share

josefritzishere

More here https://www.cfr.org/articles/washingtons-growing-portfolio-t...

palmotea

I am happy with this. There needs to be more democratic control of the economy, as the people who have been running American countries have been consistently making decisions that are against the national interest. There's risk to it, but the status quo is not something to be happy about either.

therealdrag0

There was a really interesting episode of EconTalk podcast about 6 years ago which had a guest (woman, if it helps find it) arguing that the US gov should invest in and have ownership of a lot more startups, similar to how they funded Tesla.

dcookie

I know it is not the same thing, but in case people aren't already aware, Alaskan residents have long owned stocks in private companies. It is called the Alaska Permanent Fund and a constitutionally established sovereign wealth fund invested in a diversified portfolio and managed by a state-owned corporation, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. Earnings help fund the state government and annual dividend checks are distributed to residents.

throwaway27448

At least we might get better nuclear out of this, assuming it's not as hilariously corrupt as our government contracting schemes are.