Why do I wax hot and cold on poor old Dan Drezner? Because Dan does so himself. Sometimes, Dan is so hot he’s boiling, or perhaps I should say “incandescent”! I mean, the light he sheds in his recent column, Is the United States capable of industrial policy in 2021?, is amazing. Because Dan’s answer, to well, boil it down a little, comes out in its essence to be “NO WAY JOSÉ!!!”
Taking a look at the historical record—which, by the understanding of industrial policy advocates, is nothing but cheating—Dan points out that, over and over again, we are hobbled by the fact that we’re too damn greedy and want too damn much. Yeah, we want some of those fabulous offshore windfarms, like they have in, you know, Europe, but not so much that they interfere with our fishing industry, or our tourist industry, or the property values of our weekend getaways. Oh, and to make the really big, efficient, cool windfarms, you need some really big boats to haul the parts, and, thanks to an old-fashioned seapersons’ jobs protection law known as the Jones Act, the U.S. doesn’t have any domestic boats big enough to do the job. It’s almost as if, the more you protect something, the less of it you have!_
It’s all very good—very, very good—but in my last Dan-directed kvetch ‘n praise, the more temperately titled Good Dan Drezner, Bad Dan Drezner—Dan, in response to economist Adam Posen’s argument against attempting to revive declining rural/Rustbelt areas, insists that, regardless of the difficulty, we can’t just fling up our hands and cry “There’s nothing to be done!” We have to do something! Even though the “something” that Dan struggles, not very hard, to come up with is very small beer indeed:
There are policy responses that would be appropriate here. Matthew Yglesias’s idea of relocating federal agencies outside of the Beltway retains its appeal. The pandemic realization that perhaps folks can work far away from their places of employment might also improve the chances of de-clustering employment. It is worth considering how governments can enact policies to turn fading communities into “Zoom towns.”
These aren’t “policy responses”; they’re policy gestures, a land lubber’s version of the Jones Act. Are we going to move the Pentagon to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania? The CIA to Woodville, Mississippi? I don’t see that happening. And the line “It is worth considering” is simply code for “It will never happen”. This sort of hand waving is the sort of thing that, when it’s called “industrial policy”, Dan rightfully dismisses, with, well, with a wave of his hand. A foolish consistency is nothing to be proud of. But a foolish inconsistency is even worse.
What about “terrible Dan Drezner”? Well, Terrible Dan can wait for another day. One Dan at a time is enough, I think.
Afterwords
A centerpiece—the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, in fact—of Donald Trump’s industrial policy was Foxconn’s1 $10 billion, 20-million-square-foot manufacturing campus, providing 13,000 jobs (supposedly), supposedly destined for Racine, Wisconsin, announced with full Trumpian trumpery back in the day, now about 85% shriveled in size, according to Forbes magazine, which has full details. Naturally, Wisconsin paid dearly—at least $160 million—for the privilege of being screwed over and humiliated by Sir Donald and his merry herd of enablers. It will be hard (probably) for President Biden to do worse, but a lot harder for him to do better.
1. Known on Wall Street, for some reason, as “FoxyCon”.
