Why We Don’t Need Industrial Policy

Commentary Marc Fasteau and Bay Area author Ian Fletcher’s new book “Industrial Policy for the United States” (2024) is so well written it has you believing. Until you realize there is not a single reference, even in the index, to the world’s great economists, all of whom said that nations should not have an industrial policy: Adam Smith (1776), F.A. Hayek (Nobel), Milton Friedman (Nobel). Then you realize there are no references to the basic laws of economics, such as the following: “Marginal utility theory” states that all value is subjective, that all decisions are made at the moment (at the margin), and that a government cannot make decisions (billions per year) on behalf of its citizens....