Bonus Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 8 of Scott Lincicome’s and Huan Zhu’s superb September 2021 paper, “Questioning Industrial Policy: Why Government Manufacturing Plans Are Ineffective and Unnecessary”:

A core part of industrial policy’s knowledge problem is timing: because markets and personal preferences are constantly evolving, the facts (products, investments, supply and demand, etc.) on which an industrial policy is designed will inevitably be different than the facts that exist at the time it is approved, and they will likely change again (and again) upon implementation. Discovery is endless. Thus, history repeatedly has shown that the “critical technologies” (and suppliers) of today are often not so critical tomorrow, and only markets are flexible and nimble enough to reveal the difference. Planners don’t stand a chance.