Why Trump Wants State Control of Intel w/ Prof. Wolff
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Trump administration is considering buying a 10% stake in tech company Intel to prop up the struggling chip maker. Professor Richard Wolff & Brian Becker discuss why they might do this, what it means about the U.S. economy, and what it tells us about the U.S. government's competition with China.
Professor Richard Wolff is an author & co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. You can find his work at rdwolff.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we're talking about the emerging U.S. industrial policy as the Trump administration officials |
| 0:08.8 | are discussing the government taking a 10% stake in Intel. |
| 0:15.3 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. necessity. We are very excited to have Professor Richard Wolfe join us again for our regular weekly segment where we talk about the biggest stories related to the economy, the state of the working class, and the crimes of big business. |
| 1:03.0 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:05.0 | The Socialist Program brings you content several days a week thanks to the support of our patrons at patreon.com forward slash |
| 1:13.3 | the socialist program. We appreciate all of your support and encourage you if you're not yet to |
| 1:19.0 | become a patron today. Richard Wolfe is the co-founder of the organization Democracy at Work. |
| 1:24.7 | He's the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, which is available at Democracy at Work. He's the author of many books, including Understanding Capitalism, |
| 1:28.6 | which is available at Democracy at Work.Info. Professor Wolfe, welcome back. |
| 1:34.6 | Thank you very much, Brian. Glad to be here. |
| 1:37.4 | Richard, we're going to talk about U.S. industrial policy. It's been a point of contention of |
| 1:42.1 | debate within ruling class circles since the founding of the |
| 1:46.5 | Republic back in 1787. There was the great debate between those who favored an industrial policy. |
| 1:55.1 | That would be Alexander Hamilton, who was then secretary of the Treasury. His arch-nemesis Thomas Jefferson opposed it. |
| 2:03.7 | Anyway, throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th century, there have been shifts in U.S. policy. |
| 2:10.7 | The development of an industrial policy was certainly the hallmark of the mid-19th century, |
| 2:16.0 | when the U.S. was building railroads and canals and more after World War II, the U.S. Highway program was built. |
| 2:24.8 | There were other elements of a very clear industrial policy. |
| 2:29.7 | Anyway, on June 8, 2021, Richard, the Senate passed the American Innovation and Competition Act. |
| 2:36.1 | This is during the Biden administration, which included $52 billion to boost domestic manufacturing |
| 2:42.9 | of semiconductors and $200 billion for scientific innovation research and development, so-called R&D. |
| 2:52.1 | Intel, the chipmaker, was the biggest beneficiary of the law. |
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