[rchaud]

How much of ZIRP-inflated capital went into chasing fanciful ventures like UberEats, Wework, Doordash, Airbnb, crypto and Twitter? State-run capitalism channeling funds into strategically important areas feels like a breath of fresh air compared to handing it to venture capitalists.

[brutus1213]

There is a nice Youtube channel called asionometry that shows that this was done time and time again (maybe more in Asia and Europe) in things related to electronics and semicon manufacturer, and it failed most of the time. TSMC was a shocking exception though I'm sure there are others.

In the old days, these investments were tiny compared to what is being currently spent on the chips act. I think for STEM a better approach would be a govt sponsored entrepreneurship thing .. imagine the same YC deal but we give this to any PhDs (or maybe even Masters) once in their career. I'm from Canada and when I see the cash wasted on other initiatives, I can't help but wonder why this is done. Not to say Masters or PhDs are geniuses. It is just the current system means only the well-to-do or well-pedigreed can get into places like YC (and maybe elite schools like Berkeley) while intelligence, grit and ambition are more widely distributed.

[heavyset_go]

I agree, hence my comment about the US choosing to rely strictly on markets to allocate capital. If the only lever the country is willing to pull is to adjust interest rates, it's sort of a means to that end, however inefficient.