The White House announced a near-10 stake in chip maker Intel on Friday that converts government grants into an equity share. Trump on Monday doubled down on the idea of deals in other sectors similar to the one announced with Intel.
The administrations approach does away with decades of thinking about the US economy, where the government took corporate stakes in rare emergencies like the 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent bailout of US car companies. Intel is struggling, but it still has a cash cushion of 9-billion and a market value of 105-billion.
To critics, the Intel move along with the White Houses full-court press to get the US Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, its use of emergency powers to slap tariffs on imported goods and involvement in different mergers threatens the business worlds nimbleness.