Will the US tariff Intel ?
If they are receiving state aid in Europe
Intel has agreed a deal with the German government for €10 billion ($10.9 billion) in subsidies for a new chip plant in the country, despite Germany's finance minister saying just last week that it would not offer more cash. The news comes hard on the heels of a new fab in Israel plus a facility in Poland for the company. The …
... to a large extent, then the old rule that the economic operating system privatises profits and socialises losses reaches a new level, because now it is just normal costs that are being socialised, not some unexpected losses from some exceptional situation.
I'm curious to know whether the employees in that shiny new German fab will also have to bring money in order to be allowed to work there.
>I'm curious to know whether the employees in that shiny new German fab will also have to bring money in order to be allowed to work there.
Not in Germany, but in certain capitalist countries you would have had to spend >$100K to prove you can work there
Apart from the fact that each "job" created will cost about € 1 million, water is going to be a real problem. Chip factories require lots of water and Saxony-Anhalt has had a drought for years. What do you do when the choice becomes water to drink or for the factory up the road?
@Charlie Clark
"What do you do when the choice becomes water to drink or for the factory up the road?"
There could also be power problems as they have backed themselves into a bit of a corner going green and anti-nuclear at the same time. What will manufacturing Germany do when they cant keep the energy flowing?
Power isn't going to be a problem there. Saxony-Anhalt, like much of northern Germany, has loads of renewable capacity so marginal requirements on cold dark days and nights shouldn't really be an issue. But water most definitely is. Need to fix the pricing on that asap because, at the moment, people dig wells to avoid paying for water treatment… classic tragedy of the commons, though probably not quite as tragic as the one heading southern Spain's way once the aquifer is deleted.
"Europe needs to nationalise silicon manufacturing. Its not safe to let corporations rule what will be tomorrows super weapon."
Thats a guaranteed way to stall progress, cause shortages and inflate the costs. And I dont think silicon is much of a super weapon. The world hid from a virus not a chip.
@CowHorseFrog.
You are totally right. The "super weapon" being what companies, as the U.K. is finding out, will be demanding for further "economic incentives". Because if they don't get them, they will leave. The amount of money they were bribed them with to "invest" in whichever country, will pale into insignificance compared with the amount of money they will demand to "incentivise" them to stay.
There is a reason why the U.S. government is not threatening sanctions because... subsidies for United States companies are sanction exempt.
Why doesn't the German government subsidize a German company (Infineon for example) rather than a US one ? Did they get orders from "the Big Guy" ?
After the North Stream sabotage and the German government's silence about it, Germany's vassalhood to its US overlord is becoming a real problem for the rest of Europe. Lucky for the UK to have jumped ship (so they don't have to fight over who's more submitted to their master)