As people try to make decisions on investments and how they think the stock market might go, there is the issue of the federal government increasingly, and outside the typical emergencies where they have done this in the past, taking equity stakes in private companies.
As the article states, the Trump rationale is that the companies they are taking stakes in, tech companies, rare earth companies, etc, are of tremendous strategic importance.
Critics point out the increased risk this exposes US taxpayers to a lot of risk, as the government track record of “choosing winners and losers” is not very good- and as well these investments could be distorting the value of the equity markets (look at how some of these stocks have soared early on in this new era of government involvement).
This is a call for general opinions…what do people think of this new rationale for increased government involvement in private companies?
And it’s not because of how it might sway the stock markets.
I don’t begrudge the government aiding a company of strategic importance with loans, special (de)regulations, tariffs on foreign countries. But outright ownership is bad medicine in my opinion.
It is in total defiance of the text and documented legislative intent of our Constitution and subverts the free market, free enterprise system our founders sought to protect with a written constitution.
The Trump Administration has jumped the shark, given the finger to the defined and limited powers granted by our Constitution, and is abusing the trust which Trump’s supporters have placed in him.
JWK
”Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.” Thomas Jefferson’s First Annual Message to Congress
