Coordinating the Supply Side: Creating a Systemic Industrial Policy for the 21st Century

The COVID-19 pandemic has cemented a consensus that overcoming planetary-scale problems requires direct government intervention into the real economy and the process of production – what has come to be termed “industrial strategy.” This trend is moving like a freight train that has left its station. It is difficult to stop, and its direction is determined by the intellectual and political rails on which it is running. And like a train, it can either be beneficial, delivering much-needed social and economic goods on schedule, or it can derail. It all depends on whether the rails are well-built and if they are going to the right destination. The job of institutions like the Berggruen Institute is to help lay the rails right so that this new policy enables planetary cooperation and pre-distribution. If government investments are like a train, with massive power and momentum, the rails are the institutions that solve coordination problems.