" The real delusion is the belief that advanced societies can live off spreadsheets while their physical base erodes."

"You see the retreat of industry in rich economies as a benign, inevitable drift toward services. On the ground it looks rather less idyllic. The real delusion is the belief that advanced societies can live off spreadsheets while their physical base erodes. Service innovation is welcome, but someone still has to pour the concrete and draw the wire. Better to recognise that reality now than relearn it in a hot war or a cold winter. ...

"De-industrial economies are not more efficient. They are merely importing other people's efficiency and exporting their own purchasing power.

"The lesson is not to seal borders behind tariff walls—Donald Trump's metals duties in 2018 proved how self-harming that can be—but to run an active, open industrial strategy. Permit planning that allows large plants to be built in years, not decades; use public co-investment where spill-overs are obvious ...; use trade among allies so that capacity is pooled rather than duplicated."

~ Wladimir Kraus from his letter to The Economist