The power of the golden share

On Point | Podcast

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.2 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When President Trump approved the merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel he demanded a so-called “golden share.” It gives the White House a say in key business decisions. So, what happens when the White House controls a private industry?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at
0:06.6	B.U Questrum School of Business. A recent episode explores the high stakes of the AI economy. Stick
0:13.6	around until the end of this podcast for a preview. WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:26.3	This is on point.
0:28.0	I'm Megynachakrabardi.
0:29.2	And today we're going to talk about steel.
0:32.8	The largest investment of any kind in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And we also will be the largest investment of any kind in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we also
0:40.0	will be the largest investment in the history of American steel industry. There's never been a
0:46.1	$14 billion investment in the history of the steel industry in the United States of America.
0:55.2	President Donald Trump on May 30th.
0:58.5	He was at U.S. Steel's Irvin Works facility in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania,
1:04.3	announcing the buyout of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel.
1:09.6	The buyout first announced on December 18, 23, was finalized this year on June 18th.
1:16.6	This is an incredible deal for American steel workers, and it includes vital protections
1:21.2	to ensure that all steel workers will keep their jobs at all facilities in the United States
1:26.8	will remain open and thriving.
1:33.0	Okay, so it's a historic and very big deal. And when I say we're going to talk about steel,
1:40.3	what I really mean is we're going to talk about steel industry socialism.
1:54.1	Let's start with the classical definition of socialism, as found in the American Heritage
2:00.3	Dictionary, which includes, quote,
2:02.7	the stage in Marxist-Leninist theory between capitalism and communism in which the means of
2:09.2	production are collectively owned, but a completely classless society has not yet been achieved,
	...

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