Dan Collins: Tariffs and the Future of US Manufacturing — #85

Dan Collins is Founder of Tyrell Chemical. He studied at Tsinghua University and spent 20 years working for companies like General Motors in China, helping to localize automotive manufacturing. Dan and Steve discuss tariffs, deindustrialization in America, the Go-Go days of rapid economic growth in PRC, and the future of the US-China relationship.

Follow Dan on X: https://x.com/DanCollins2011

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:25) - Dan's Early Life and Education in Michigan
• (02:30) - Experiences in China, Tsinghua University
• (05:42) - China's Educational and Economic Transformation
• (14:39) - US-China Trade Relations and Joint Ventures
• (41:48) - China's Auto Market
• (42:38) - Weaponization of Customs and Nationalism
• (43:20) - Impact of Tariffs on US Manufacturing
• (44:28) - Chaos in Global Trade and Supply Chains
• (49:34) - The Golden Screw Theory and Manufacturing Dependence
• (51:50) - Strategies for Reindustrializing the US

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve.

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