zlacker

>>tedsan+(OP)
The US appears to be fully in the grips of centralized economic autarky. A tiny coterie of industrialists who have the President's ear decide how to allocate a gigantic amount of capital for their pet projects while the state raises tariffs and implements bans to protect them from competition.

Didn't go well for South America in the 60s and 70s but perhaps, as economists are prone to saying, "this time will be different".

>>rchaud+592
this is private capital. yes, we are in an era of big projects and big capital deployment. is that synonymous with centralized autarky? i don’t agree

>>whimsi+Ba2
And where do you think the socialists of the 60s got hard currency to import machinery from? Borrowing from non-state lenders.

>>rchaud+Xf2
borrowing from non-state lenders is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for ‘autarky’ and your reasoning seems to just be since it happened in South America in the 60s it must be part of the economic mismanagement that occurred there.

i agree that our protectionist policies are bad and autarkic in nature