The Economist in Bidenomics agrees with the aims
"Bidenomics takes on two of the biggest long-term threats facing America: the rise of an increasingly autocratic China, and the looming dangers of climate change."
But, is worried about the inflation they drive and "its protectionism makes America less likely to achieve" those aims.
I recognize those tensions, but there is a time when the US government should flex its muscles as it has clearly done in the past. The semiconductor chips act and the energy transformation of the inflation reduction act are bets worth making for the long term. The US government should trim the fat elsewhere, no doubt. But the market economy itself needs some help to make fast and recognizable progress in technology and energy infrastructure. I doubt it is very different from how the investments in war and the space race in the end also catapulted the US to the leading edge of technology and hence economic progress.
And the article also sees the opportunity to the upside. "But Bidenomics may also exceed expectations. Its industrial policy is not as heavy-handed as some: it aims to create incentives for firms to enter certain industries rather than to pick corporate winners."
It would be good if more branches of government could shift the investment to incentives too.
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