Industrial Policy for the United States: Winning the Competition for Good Jobs and High-Value Industries

The U.S. is losing the competition for good jobs and high-value industries because most of Washington believes trade should be free, the dollar should float, and that innovation comes exclusively from the private sector. In this book, the authors make the bold case that these laissez-faire ideas have failed and that a robust industrial policy is the only way for America to remain prosperous and secure. Trump and Biden have enacted some of its elements, but it needs to be made systematic and comprehensive, including tariffs to protect key industries, a competitive exchange rate, and federal support for commercialization--not just invention--of new technologies. Timely, meticulously researched, and bipartisan, this impressive analysis replaces misunderstandings about industrial policy with lucid explanations of its underlying economic theory, the tools that implement it, and its successes (and failures) in America and abroad. It examines key industries of the past and future - steel, automobiles, television, semiconductors, space, aviation, robotics, and nanotechnology. It concludes with a realistic, actionable policy roadmap. A work of rigor and ambition, Industrial Policy for the United States is essential reading.

Author: Marc Fasteau,Ian Fletcher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/21/2024
Pages: 836
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 3.18lbs
Size: 8.29h x 7.60w x 1.44d
ISBN: 9781009243070


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2025
Library Journal 12/13/2024 pg. 1

About the Author
Fletcher, Ian: - Ian Fletcher is on the Advisory Board of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn't Work and coauthor of The Conservative Case against Free Trade. He was a senior economist at the Coalition and previously a research fellow at the US Business and Industry Council. He was educated at Columbia and the University of Chicago.Fasteau, Marc: - Marc Fasteau is a vice-chair of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. Before founding an insurance company acquired by Progressive, he was a partner at Dillon Read & Co., a New York investment bank. Earlier in his career he served on the professional staffs of the US Senate majority leader, the Joint Economic Committee and the House Banking and Currency Committee. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was on the Harvard Law Review.