July 11, 2006 2:00PM 

# Policy Dreams vs. Government Realities 

By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) 

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When I came to Washington in 1990, central planning (“industrial policy”) was all the rage. As the 1990s progressed, the clamor for industrial policy faded, partly because the Japanese and German economies stagnated while the US economy soared.

But in my inbox this morning came news of [a new study from the Progressive Policy Institute](http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecid=206&contentid=253926) claiming that “America needs a national comprehensive strategy in order to maintain its preeminence within the world economy.”

Which government would implement this “national comprehensive stategy” I wonder? Surely not the same one that delivers non-stop pork barrel spending, management failure, and corruption year after year, decade after decade.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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