As Congress barrels toward an election that could see at least one house change hands, efforts to squeeze a few big bills into law are mounting. The one with the best chance (better than I expected) would drop $52 billion in cash and a boatload of tax breaks on the semiconductor
Dusty Old Trust Building, Providence
industry. Michael Ellis points out that this is industrial policy without apology, and a throwback to the 1980s, when the government organized Sematech to shore up US chipmaking. Thanks to a bipartisan consensus on the need to fight a Chinese challenge, and elimination of controversial provisions that tried to hitch a ride on the bill, there now looks to be a clear path to enactment for this bill.
