Rebuilding strategic manufacturing is less about aggregate subsidies and more about state capacity to negotiate deals, clear permitting bottlenecks, coordinate labor pipelines, and underwrite geopolitical risk. The CHIPS Act episode shows successful chip projects required bespoke contracting, streamlined local approvals, workforce plans and diplomatic risk mitigation, not just money.
— If true, policy debates should focus on building bureaucratic deal‑making, permitting reforms and labor programs as the central levers of reindustrialization rather than only on headline dollar amounts.
Halina Bennet
2026.01.14
78% relevant
The article pits national/local energy standards against supply expansion; the existing idea argues the decisive factor in delivering industrial outcomes is permitting and dealmaking. Slow, costly energy requirements operate like permitting friction that can block affordable housing unless accompanied by pragmatic dealcraft.
Oren Cass
2026.01.09
100% relevant
Mike Schmidt, former CHIPS Program Office director, describing how combining grants/tax credits, permit work, labor coordination and negotiated terms with chipmakers was essential to turning CHIPS Act funding into real factories.
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