The Inflation Reduction Act in the US is a type of re-birth for industry policy. The idea that governments…

The Inflation Reduction Act in the US is a type of re-birth for industry policy. The idea that governments should shape productive capacity. I still remember the Button Plan, which set in motion the dismantling of the car industry here. An industry the ALP had earlier set up. /1 https://t.co/kbfDrUR8GN

Being good little LNP-lites, railing against 'protectionism' and 'subsidies'. An earlier ALP understood that it was investment. As Joe Biden does. Watch the US fly now, whole industries considering relocating there. While we still worship the power of the 'market'. /2

Which doesn't exist. Even the people who invented the idea rely upon an 'invisible hand' to try to make the whole farce not fall over. That invisible hand is only invisible because it's usually a corrupt fistful of donor dollars. /3

Albanese to his credit is flirting with a sort of pseudo industry policy, with the focus on supporting onshore production again. /4 https://t.co/fTBhBXR82i

But I suspect it won't be a massive detour from the market, from the economy. The supermassive black-hole at the centre of all modern politics, from which no party of any persuasion can escape. Conservatives created it as a strategic tool, a Trojan Horse. /5

To replace electoral politics with permanent conservative hegemony. The economic KPIs that dominate news coverage 365 days of every year are that strategy working. Mistaken as some sort of 'objective' machinery underlying the nation. That was the con. 6/6