Throwing money

The other day, Kees van der Lede, former CEO of Akzonobel and figurehead of Dutch business and industry association VNO, urged (link in Dutch) the right-of-center political establishment to be courageous. Governments backing off and leaving things to businesses and markets, he contends, just doesn’t cut it anymore. Hard-working people, stooped in job insecurity, barely reaping the benefits of economic growth, businesses failing to reinvest profits, monopolies cornering markets and many more wrongs – something needs to be done. Just as the left ditched dogma, in the 80s and 90s, to help usher in an era of prosperity, now it’s the turn of the liberal victors to move to the political center, argues Van der Lede.

Van der Lede’s analysis reminded me of some reading I’ve been doing recently. Economist Mariana Mazzucato, too, has been talking up the state, but in a specific policy area: innovation. Her core argument is that primarily the state drives progress, not pioneers pushing through the thicket of government regulation and taxation as is commonly held today.