I think there’s a view among people our age and younger (not you and me specifically) that capitalism failed in 2008, and then we had these ZIRP gimmicky startups, meanwhile we neglected our industrial base which led to both political and economic problems, hence the need for a DC planner/strategist-led economy/Bidenonomics. @JBSDC

@TheStalwart I feel like I hear that?

@NathanpmYoung Have you looked at economic sentiment numbers? Have you followed the political discourse?

@conorsen @TheStalwart Most people in Econ policy on the Dem side (and some in the GOP) really think the Chinese run their economy in a superior way to us. It’s disorienting until you realize they don’t understand how China’s economy works, that it doesn’t have a safety net, and that it makes mistakes.

@TheStalwart Wait, I thought this that was so obvious as to be anodyne.

@TheStalwart obvi @deanwball needs to write his version of breakneck

@DCCyclone @TheStalwart I think it’s one big soup of manufacturing/auto unions, the 2016 swing to Trump, rise of China, supply chain concerns.

@TheStalwart I don't think that AI has resulted in massive productivity gains yet. We're still about 6-12 months away.

The productivity is due to increased investment in manufacturing due to both investment agreements and tariffs.

@TheStalwart Strip out the AI capex and the GDP print looks pretty European. Calling it a boom when seven companies' datacentre spend is doing the lifting is generous

@TheStalwart The US economy is booming for a **select population n'est ce-pas?

@TheStalwart Normal people refusing to buy into the supposed AI economic boom remind me of dogs barking at terminators. They will be vindicated sooner or later.

@JBSDC @conorsen @TheStalwart Agree, the biggest thing to me is everyday quality of life for the masses is simply better in the U.S. That's what defines how "good" or "strong" the economy in the only meaningful sense.

@conorsen @TheStalwart But that was a decades-long process beginning in 1980ish. I get it that sometimes an issue simmers and then explodes suddenly, not concurrent with the temperature rising. But I don't buy that "declining manufacturing" drove 2016 voting, directly or indirectly.

@mattyglesias Ah ok. I’m probably wrong

@conorsen @TheStalwart What is the "industrial base" and how was it "failed"? Honest questions, even though, yes, I also ask with some skepticism that these terms are much more than convenient buzzwords rather than thoughtfully-considered shorthand.

@JBSDC @conorsen @TheStalwart It’s also amplified by their media intake and any local exposure they have (treated like royalty when they visit; curated experiences)

If we really want to change this image, they should visit Dongguan and be told to say they are poor, have little family and see how well they do

@TheStalwart And of course no one in China is working on AI.

@conorsen @TheStalwart The irony of the post-crisis era is that Western political classes have concluded—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary—that they should run their economies more like China's. It is as if the 1980s had ended with the US putting its own MITI and Gosplan in charge.

@TheStalwart i say it sometimes

@can @TheStalwart I am writing a book! Though more focused on political philosophy and liberalism than it is on U.S./China.