The Trump administration has begun taking direct equity stakes in American companies, not as temporary crisis measures, as in 2008, but as permanent fixtures of industrial policy.
The moves raise interesting questions, including what happens when the White House appears on your cap table.
At TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco last week, Sequoia Capital’s global steward Roelof Botha fielded exactly that query, and his response drew knowing laughter from the packed house: “One of the most dangerous words in the world are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”
Botha, who describes himself as “sort of libertarian, free market thinker by nature,” conceded that industrial policy has its place when national interests demand it. “The only reason the U.S. is resorting to this is because we have other nation states with whom we compete who are using industrial policy to further their industries that are strategic and maybe adverse to the U.S. in long term interests.” In other words, China’s playing the game, so the U.S.
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