Saikat Chakrabarti

And, you know, other countries in Europe have versions of this. And it's key to note that it's not just, you know, it's not just like this one institution. If we put it in, it's going to fix everything. You know, Germany has all kinds of financing mechanisms. They have agricultural co-op banks. They have...

And, you know, other countries in Europe have versions of this. And it's key to note that it's not just, you know, it's not just like this one institution. If we put it in, it's going to fix everything. You know, Germany has all kinds of financing mechanisms. They have agricultural co-op banks. They have...

have this whole range of financing for small and medium manufacturing in the country, and that's held up a lot of their economy. And in China, similar. They have these big industrial banks that fund all kinds of projects. But it's really just this proactive nature of finding projects that are getting in the way of progress and then making sure those things get built.

have this whole range of financing for small and medium manufacturing in the country, and that's held up a lot of their economy. And in China, similar. They have these big industrial banks that fund all kinds of projects. But it's really just this proactive nature of finding projects that are getting in the way of progress and then making sure those things get built.

I think that is the big part of the story. The major part of the story is after the New Deal, and there's a great book called Invisible Hands by Kim Phillips Fine, which really details the push of that ideology over 40 years, a long-term plan.

I think that is the big part of the story. The major part of the story is after the New Deal, and there's a great book called Invisible Hands by Kim Phillips Fine, which really details the push of that ideology over 40 years, a long-term plan.

And I think that's why even when presidents came in wanting to do a little bit more Obama, I forget which book, but there's some book where Obama actually said after recession, shouldn't we do our moonshot project now? But he was surrounded by people who was like, no, no, no, obviously we shouldn't be doing that. You know, when they're talking about

And I think that's why even when presidents came in wanting to do a little bit more Obama, I forget which book, but there's some book where Obama actually said after recession, shouldn't we do our moonshot project now? But he was surrounded by people who was like, no, no, no, obviously we shouldn't be doing that. You know, when they're talking about

I think that was part of the problem. You know, in the context of a larger economy, you can't just say one little high-speed rail line, right? And they also funded Solyndra and Tesla, as you point out in the book, right? But they only wanted to do those two projects, and they just focused on the failure of Solyndra rather than the huge success of Tesla.

I think that was part of the problem. You know, in the context of a larger economy, you can't just say one little high-speed rail line, right? And they also funded Solyndra and Tesla, as you point out in the book, right? But they only wanted to do those two projects, and they just focused on the failure of Solyndra rather than the huge success of Tesla.

Well, that guarantee program funded more than just those two, right? Yeah, but those are the big ones.

Well, that guarantee program funded more than just those two, right? Yeah, but those are the big ones.

I think it's actually important to remember that for most of the cases in the 20th century, it wasn't under a war or some kind of emergence like that. You know, there was usually some political party that came into power, you know, in Western Europe or in South Korea that really just pitched the mission of let's get rich. You know, let's make society rich.

I think it's actually important to remember that for most of the cases in the 20th century, it wasn't under a war or some kind of emergence like that. You know, there was usually some political party that came into power, you know, in Western Europe or in South Korea that really just pitched the mission of let's get rich. You know, let's make society rich.

Finland did this after the fall of the Berlin Wall in like the 80s and 90s. And that was pretty recent. So it's possible for a politics to come in and say the mission is... Our society has been kind of declining. We're stuck. People's wages have been stagnating. And we actually need to fix that. And I actually think the politics is already almost there.

Finland did this after the fall of the Berlin Wall in like the 80s and 90s. And that was pretty recent. So it's possible for a politics to come in and say the mission is... Our society has been kind of declining. We're stuck. People's wages have been stagnating. And we actually need to fix that. And I actually think the politics is already almost there.

I think that's what people thought they're voting for with Obama and with Trump and to an extent with Biden. Biden really campaigned on a bit of a mission. And it was in a crisis. And it was in a crisis. Which increased people's ambitions by quite a bit. Yeah.

I think that's what people thought they're voting for with Obama and with Trump and to an extent with Biden. Biden really campaigned on a bit of a mission. And it was in a crisis. And it was in a crisis. Which increased people's ambitions by quite a bit. Yeah.

And I think I think there's just been this general sense that whatever the current political order is, is not delivering the promise that people have had, you know, that America made of people in the postwar era. So we're looking for something new that's going to start delivering that again.

And I think I think there's just been this general sense that whatever the current political order is, is not delivering the promise that people have had, you know, that America made of people in the postwar era. So we're looking for something new that's going to start delivering that again.