Three years in: $30.7 billion awarded, nearly $450 billion of private projects announced, 4-nanometre production running in Arizona, and the law's biggest single bet converted into a 9.9% government stake in Intel. An audit of what the CHIPS Act has actually built, and what has slipped.
Aug 15, 2026 · 8 min read
The 2018-19 trade war produced a rare thing in economics: an unusually clear answer. Import prices did not fall; the tariff landed on US firms and households. Now the effective rate is 16.8%, the highest since 1935, the average household is out about $1,700 a year, and the same measurements are being made again.
Aug 15, 2026 · 8 min read
Washington restricts what China can buy; Beijing restricts what America can make it from. Gallium, 98% Chinese, and germanium, majority Chinese, went from licensing in 2023 to an outright US ban in December 2024. Germanium has quintupled since 2023. The tonnages are tiny, but the precedent reaches much further.
Aug 15, 2026 · 8 min read