The U.S. Is Buying Stocks (And Copying China)

"Subsidies from the government can become a lot more attractive and appealing than spending all that money on research and development. And we've seen this play out in other economies when state capital or money dominates. So their innovation and creativity slows down because then the safest thing to do is to play politics instead of make a better product"

"So another risk is that money might actually move away from good efficient companies towards those that have government favoritism. Over time it weakens the economy. We've seen that happen in China."

"This is not the kind of manufacturing that's going to bring back millions of jobs. Because the industries we're talking about like semiconductors, lithium refining, AI infrastructure, those are all very high-skilled high-tech industries. In some cases, they'll require PhDs and robotics engineers. They will be mostly automated systems that are going to do most of the work humans used to do. So even if we do build more factories, they will be filled not with people but with robots. You might see a ribbon cutting ceremony or two and maybe a couple thousand new jobs, but they will never offset what will be lost to automation and AI."

"The companies that start to win then are not necessarily the most creative ones. They'll be the most strategically and politically aligned ones."

"When the government invests in companies, it also has an interest in keeping their stock prices somewhat stable, especially during election years. That's kind of a safety net in a way. In a way, it's the US market is actually being engineered not to fail."