Should the U.S. Government Own Shares of Private Companies?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a highly unusual move, the Trump Administration announced the government will take a 10 percent equity stake in computer chipmaker Intel. The new arrangement makes the U.S. government the largest shareholder in Intel, a relationship many economists, policy experts and elected officials say is problematic, unnecessary and signals an overreach of presidential power. Earlier in August, fellow chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices agreed to pay the United States 15 percent of their revenue from selling chips in China. We talk about what those deals mean, the administration’s strategy and why experts say this is a step toward fascism. Guests: Louise Matsakis, senior business editor, WIRED Tad DeHaven, policy analyst for federal and state economic and fiscal policy issues, Cato Institute - a think tank Nils Gilman, chief operating officer, executive vice president of programs and deputy editor of Noema Magazine, Berggruen Institute - a think tank Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KQED podcasts comes from Star One Credit Union. Give your savings account the love it deserves.
0:07.9	When you keep your money with Star 1, you keep more of your money. Star 1 credit union in your best interest.
0:14.6	Here's the truth about AI. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. Service Now puts AI to work for people
0:22.4	across your business, removing friction and frustration for your employees, supercharging
0:28.0	productivity for your developers, providing intelligent tools for your service agents to make
0:32.8	customers happier. All built into a single platform you can use right now. That's why the world works with
0:39.6	ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com slash UK slash AI for people. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:02.4	As Donald Trump scrambled American politics with his takeover of the Republican Party,
1:07.4	so his second administration is reorienting long-held beliefs among conservatives
1:13.4	about our country's economic system.
1:16.2	Beliefs like the American government should not take ownership, stakes, and corporations
1:20.1	because that would be socialist.
1:22.7	Well, the administration announced a plan to take a 10% stake in Intel and has signaled
1:26.4	the intent to do more deals
1:27.6	like this, and Bernie Sanders has voiced his support for the Intel deal. We've got an expert
1:33.0	panel to help us make sense of it all. It's all coming up next, right after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. As China rose economically in the early 21st century,
1:56.0	it was often described as having an economic system that was capitalism with Chinese characteristics,
2:03.6	meaning there were markets and entrepreneurship and competition, but also the Chinese state and
2:09.1	Communist Party played a heavy role in the functioning of the economy, especially around
2:14.1	powerful and important industries and companies. Well, looking at the deals that Donald Trump's administration has cut with chipmakers,
2:22.3	Nvidia and Intel over the last month.
2:24.3	We're looking perhaps at socialism with MAGA characteristics.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.