In the days of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, ‘picking winners’ of industry was an object of scorn. Even their centrist successors believed the market knew best. Low taxes and light regulation were the path to growth. When financial crisis struck, as in 2008–09, the remedies were low interest rates, quantitative easing and broad fiscal stimulus. Targeted assistance was limited to distressed banks, auto firms and others.

Before the Trump era, industrial policy — in the sense of detailed government guidance of economic life — was regarded as a hangover from the Soviet Union, to be embraced only by misguided developing countries. Times change, nowhere more than in political fashions. Disruption of global supply chains caused a shortage of medical supplies, prompting the US government to stress domestic production of medical supplies and other essential goods. President Donald Trump even announced a $US765 million ($1.07 billion) government loan to Kodak for the production of generic drug ingredients in the US— an entirely new line for the old photography company.