TECH: Public-Private Cooperation

Apparently Sematech is one of the best known examples of the US government joining forces with private industry to help private US industry regain its competitiveness.

Wikipedia article

Sematech website

In Sematech's case, the effort was geared towards making US semiconductor producers more efficient. Interestingly, the automotive manufacturers are now taking similar steps to convince the US government to enter into a partnership with a consortium of manufacturers to work on battery technology.

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Another interesting example from the NYTimes:

History illustrates how tricky it can be to make public spending work as intended. The many dams Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration built generated an abundance of electricity, lowering its cost so that families could afford to operate the appliances then becoming available. The construction itself put money into workers’ pockets. But the appliances were too costly for most families during the Depression, and the manufacturers wouldn’t extend credit. For all the money spent by the Roosevelt administration, public investment was failing to jump-start a key private-sector industry.

His administration was inventive, however, and found a way around the problem by subsidizing installment purchases. That was when appliance production finally rose. In time, installment plans evolved into consumer loans and charge cards, and that helped make the American consumer economy the envy of the world.