Looking back over the Biden administration, the passage of the bipartisan Chips and Science Act should fall near the top of any list of its accomplishments. It has been obvious for a long time that not only the US, but also the world, needed a more diverse group of production hubs for semiconductors — the lifeblood of the digital economy. Until quite recently, most chips were made in south-east Asia and nearly all high-end ones were made in Taiwan, arguably the third most geopolitically contentious place in the world after Ukraine and the Middle East.

Now, thanks to the Chips Act, there is new production capacity being built in both America and Europe, with the EU launching its own stimulus to compete with the US.

While some in economics and business circles doubted whether the US would be able to reindustrialise in this way, the economy goes where incentives push it. It is amazing what you can accomplish in two years when you pour $53bn of public money and nearly $400bn worth of private investment into incentivising domestic production.