When Ronald Reagan said that the nine most dangerous words in the English language were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” he provoked a storm of protest from all sides of the political debate. Governments clearly can help drive competitiveness through improved skills policies, by investing in infrastructure and housing, as well as supporting innovation through R&D and incentivizing capital investment towards startups. Indeed Reagan embarked upon a radical new industrial strategy – the Small Business Innovation Research program – which between 1995 and 2018 generated an additional $184 billion in value added. But governments and investors