Germany is using its Energiewende policy as a way of envisioning a green transformation and innovation across many sectors.

Government support is not only investing in upstream areas like basic research, but also in downstream areas like applied research and early-stage financing for the companies themselves. This means there are great risks.

Another similarity of Brexit and Trump's campaigns was an attack on so-called elites. This is not so much a failure of capitalism as of its high priests in the economic profession, for which we must all take some responsibility.

Too many politicians seem to reach for 'infrastructure' as the default answer to investment, as if roads and bridges were the answer to everything. Even the IMF and the World Bank seem to mainly offer infrastructure spending as an alternative to austerity, although they are right to focus on the need for investment.

Unfortunately, simplistic framing of problems leads to simplistic answers.

Markets are not static entities that are 'intervened' in (for good or bad) but are outcomes of public and private interactions.

An interesting attribute of public banks is that they don't only de-risk the downside, but also get a share of the upside.