These sound like remarkably bad ideas

It’s entirely true that globalisation is changing and yet:

How about citizen consultations on bringing back some manufacturing? We may have clever ideas that politicos and their advisers have overlooked. America is embarking on a win-win strategy by subsidising companies that create green jobs: green transformation, new skilled jobs and less dependence on China. Imagine what a high-end chip plant in the West Midlands could do for Britain.

Jobs, as we never tire of pointing out, are a cost, not a benefit. Creating more jobs in the energy production system is creating more costs in the energy production system. Requiring more human labour to produce the same value of output also lowers labour productivity - by definition. And since average wages depend upon the average productivity of labour - not just depend upon, are determined by - this lowers all wages in the United States. This is not good policy.

As to citizens consultations of course these happen every time anyone buys anything. And a high end chip plant in the West Midlands? We have no one in the country who can actually run a high end chip plant - as the Americans are finding out there, tens of billions of $ have been sprayed at building the factories only to find out they’ve not got the workers.

It is entirely true that globalisation is changing but it’s changing in the right manner. Which is that market participants are experimenting with what to do and then doing more of what works, less of what doesn’t. Rather than change in globalisation being a green light for every planning stupidity that fools can come up with.

A change in how the market system allocates is not an excuse for not using the market system of allocation - quite the opposite.