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U.S. Government Involvement In Private Business

Observant1
edited September 1 in Other Investing
U.S. government intervention in private business was fairly common in the 19th century.
The reported outcomes for these endeavors (in story below) were not good.

"It would be naive to say that stock investors earned lower returns in the old days solely because Uncle Sam mucked up the markets. It would be just as naive to think that fraud, waste, corruption and conflicts of interest didn’t play any part in reducing returns."

The U.S. did finance several private companies in recent decades (Chrysler, GM, Penn Central, several banks)
on a situational basis in response to perceived emergencies and the very real GFC.
Under the Trump regime, the government will take 15% of AMD's and Nvidia's revenues from AI chip sales to China. The same government has also taken an equity stake in Intel and will invest billions to attain an ~15% equity stake in MP Materials. Donald J. Trump has recently implied "many more cases" may be forthcoming.

“'Why, in 2025,' asks historian Brian Murphy of Rutgers University, 'are we reviving economic practices
that we largely abandoned in the 19th century because they were too corrupt for a 'modern' nation?'”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trump-s-deals-with-companies-aren-t-un-american-that-s-the-problem/ar-AA1Luf8t

Comments

  • CrashCrash
    Why, indeed? Isn't he dead yet???
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    In Europe and Asia, where government stakes, golden-shares or board seats are common, companies are also restricted from acting quickly on labor or old plant shutdowns.

    US companies are much quicker in taking labor or plant/capital decisions. This has contributed to higher US productivity and profitability. This may change with US Gov involvement in US companies.
  • WABACWABAC
    The MSN link now bounces to the Wall Street Journal.
  • Observant1
    WABAC said:

    The MSN link now bounces to the Wall Street Journal.

    You could try clearing browser cookies/cache or using a different browser.
  • Observant1
    edited September 1
    yogibearbull said:

    In Europe and Asia, where government stakes, golden-shares or board seats are common,
    companies are also restricted from acting quickly on labor or old plant shutdowns.

    US companies are much quicker in taking labor or plant/capital decisions.
    This has contributed to higher US productivity and profitability.
    This may change with US Gov involvement in US companies.

    The U.S. government may force companies to take or avoid certain actions for political reasons.
    As yogi mentioned, productivity/profitability could be negatively impacted.
  • WABACWABAC
    @Observant1. Tried the cookie trick. I only have one browser on my linux laptop. I've seen this before with WSJ pieces. I did eventually get there from another link that let me see the piece for free with an advert to subscribe.

    I was reminded--yet again--that the GOP has been trying to repeal the 20th Century as long as I have been following it.
  • Observant1
    @WABAC,

    When using MSN links for stories originating at other sites (e.g., Barron's, WSJ),
    I'll get redirected to the originating site after multiple MSN links for the same site
    are used during a browser session. To get around this, I'll close/reopen the browser
    or use a different browser. All my browsers are configured to clear cache/cookies at close.
  • WABACWABAC
    @Observant1, I do the same with the linux laptop since I lost the last one at an airport. I don't save any passwords either. I also go in and manually clear stored information because Firefox always has a few MB's of something tucked away.

    I always buy used laptops and install various distros with the Xfce desktop.
  • Observant1
    edited September 1
    @WABAC,

    Which Linux distro(s) do you run?
    I'm currently running Windows but am considering switching to Debian,
    Linux Mint Debian Edition, or Pop!_OS.
  • WABACWABAC
    Mainly Xubuntu or whatever the Mint Xfce distro is called.

    In years past I tried Redhat and SUSE, then Ubuntu. There are probably some others in there I can't remember. I never cared for GNU as a desktop. I started on KDE, but as the years went by the simplicity of Xfce won out.

    My last job included teaching volunteers how to refurbish used computers and install linux. Xubuntu was just the easiest to work with.

    I was never a power user. I got enough of command lines with DOS. And I never had the hand-eye coordination for coding/scripting/programming--or is it apping these days? There is always some dang thang out of place or mising, if you know what I meen. :-}

    I still run Windows on the desktop. I have learned how to run a linux VM on it for some hobby work I do. Lots of command-line fun and simple .yaml files to screw up there.
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