With the federal government now the largest shareholder of Intel, an ostensibly private company, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wants you to know “This is not socialism.” But if public ownership of the means of production isn’t socialism, what is?
With feverish speed and characteristic blunderbuss, President Donald Trump has given the federal government — and himself — unprecedented control over private economic decisions. It is a threat to the profit-and-loss system at the heart of American prosperity.
Consider a few examples:
This spring, the president’s trade war shot America’s average tariff rate from 1.5% to 28%, making us the second-highest tariffed people in the world. Bond markets and courts have forced Trump to back down, but tariffs are still higher than they’ve been i