Archive
Matching these filters: 8 pieces
Pieces
- ExplainerRegional Development
What a new business application actually counts
Business applications are the fastest local signal of new enterprise, and the most often oversold. By the end you will know what the filing is, how far it sits from a business with employees, and what the count cannot tell a city.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
Manufacturing employment and manufacturing output measure different things
A country can make more while employing fewer people, and the federal series that track it will say so. This explains what each one counts and when each one is the right measure to cite.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
What a production subsidy actually buys
Governments underwrite factories in two different ways: by paying toward the building, or by paying for each unit the finished plant makes. By the end you will know which instrument a programme is using, and what each one can and cannot change.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
What upstream and downstream mean in an energy supply chain
The words split an industry into three stages with different economics, different regulators and different failure modes. By the end you will know where each boundary falls and why the stage a policy attaches to decides who pays for it.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
How construction spending counts work that has actually been done
Announcements, permits and starts all measure intent. Value put in place measures work installed on site. This explains what the difference is worth when a building programme is being judged.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
What "manufacturing as a share of GDP" actually measures
The share has fallen every year since 2022. That is not the same as making less, and the difference is where most arguments about industrial policy go wrong.
- ExplainerIndustrial Policy
What a domestic content rule actually requires
A Buy American clause is an origin test written into a contract, not a ban on foreign goods. By the end you will know how the test is computed, who has to prove it, and what a waiver reveals.
- ExplainerTrade & Investment
What an export credit agency does for a sale abroad
An export credit agency is a public body that takes on the risk a commercial bank will not, so that a domestic exporter can sell to a foreign buyer on credit. By the end you should be able to follow the transaction and see where the public exposure actually sits.