I’m reading through the transcript of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing titled “To Receive Testimony on Rebuilding American Critical Minerals Supply Chains.” Michael Cadenazzi, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, basically admitted that the capitalist approach failed.
He said:
“Senator, the issue of — or the opportunity that equity provides us is that it’s a catalyst for private investment and a more aggressive way of reconciling what has been a failed market-based approach to address this national security need. We have invested small amounts of money. We provided grants, we’ve tried to incentivize through tax incentives and things like that.”
This came after Wicker opened with:
“We can leverage our private capital markets, one of our few remaining comparative advantages against Beijing.”
I actually laughed. The witness immediately undercut the premise: the market didn’t build the supply chain, didn’t respond to incentives, and didn’t meet the national security requirement. They said it outright — the market failed.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 