Part 4: Call to Action - Building the Future Inside the Walls:
"The White House is trying to remake the global system to its benefit, as it did in 1945 and after the Bretton Woods system collapsed in the 1970s. However, this time the US wants to ensure it centres around state-guided US reindustrialisation not private sector-guided US financialisation to ensure its global military primacy: on the status quo trend that assumption is questioned by many." - Michael Every5
The clock is running.
Companies positioned to dominate the next half-century aren't waiting for political clarity—they're securing strategic sites, building local partnerships, and deploying physical capital across Fortress North America. With each new policy incentive and executed trade agreement, the gap widens between firms that act decisively and those that hesitate.
If you oversee capital allocation, your choice is stark:
- Build inside the walls now—while robust incentives, political momentum, and infrastructure investments converge in your favor.
- Wait—and pay premium prices later, competing for fewer opportunities in an increasingly policy-driven environment where regulatory compliance, supply chain security, and market access converge into competitive necessity.
This represents a rare alignment of strategic forces:
- Durable tax incentives (Opportunity Zones, Qualified Small Business Stock, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, accelerated depreciation) dramatically reduce upfront costs while boosting long-term ROI.
- A secure, integrated continental market combines Canada's resource strengths, Mexico's workforce dynamism, and U.S. demand scale into a unified economic bloc of 500 million consumers.
- Bipartisan commitment to resilience ensures program longevity and minimizes policy risk for committed capital investments. As Andreessen notes, even traditionally anti-building constituencies are recognizing the need for physical infrastructure and domestic production capacity.2
- Technological leadership in AI and robotics, with the U.S. maintaining decisive advantages over competitors while Europe regulates itself out of contention.
- Delay carries steep penalties: premier sites are rapidly claimed, incentive windows narrow, and latecomers face both higher entry costs and amplified exposure to trade, policy, and geopolitical volatility.
The Strategic Imperative
The next industrial era will belong to those who deploy physical capital where it yields the strongest, most durable strategic value. Three converging realities make this moment unique:
- The end of the "cheapest labor" model: Geopolitical risks now outweigh marginal cost savings from distant production.
- The rise of the Alien Dreadnought: AI-powered automation makes high-wage regions competitive for sophisticated manufacturing while creating entirely new categories of production.
- Policy alignment: Federal, state, and local incentives create unprecedented support for strategic reshoring, while competitor nations handicap themselves through overregulation.
A Compact Roadmap for Executives
- Site Selection: Prioritize locations with robust supplier ecosystems, modern transportation infrastructure, and scalable utility capacity. Proximity to research universities and technical training programs provides sustainable talent pipelines—particularly important given the systematic underutilization of domestic talent in recent decades.
- Incentive Optimization: Map all available benefits (Opportunity Zones, accelerated depreciation, state and local programs) against your project's internal rate of return. Properly stacked incentives can transform marginal projects into compelling investments while supporting broader community development goals.
- Local Partnership: Engage early with housing, workforce development, and infrastructure stakeholders. Programs like Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and regional workforce initiatives are critical for sustained competitive advantage and help address the artificial scarcity of skilled domestic workers.
- Execution Speed: Move decisively while current momentum and infrastructure alignment favor early movers. The window of optimal conditions won't remain open indefinitely, and competitor positioning accelerates daily.
Conclusion: The Future Belongs to the Prepared
Fortress North America represents more than policy rhetoric—it's the operational blueprint for sophisticated capital allocation and competitive advantage through 2030 and beyond. The convergence of geopolitical necessity, technological capability, and policy support creates a generational opportunity for enterprises capable of acting decisively.
Institutional investors who built capacity in Asia during the 1990s and 2000s captured decades of competitive advantage through labor arbitrage. Today's equivalent opportunity lies within North America's borders, enhanced by automation technologies that transform manufacturing economics while policy incentives dramatically improve returns.
Organizations with patient capital that act now will secure lower entry costs, superior incentive structures, and market positions that compound for decades. Those who hesitate will find themselves playing catch-up in an increasingly policy-driven environment.
The great reshoring has begun. For executives responsible for long-term positioning, the question isn't whether this trend will accelerate, but whether your organization will lead or react to others who recognized the moment.
The most valuable industrial real estate in the next decade won't be in financial centers—it will be in manufacturing corridors where physical capital meets policy tailwinds and America's vast reserves of underutilized talent.
The window for optimal positioning is finite. The foundations of Fortress North America are being laid now—the only question is whether you'll be building inside the walls or watching from the outside.
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Citations
1.Zeihan, Peter. The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder. Twelve, 2014.↩
2.Podcast: "Ep 118: Marc Andreessen on AI, Robotics & America's Industrial Renaissance," interview with Marc Andreessen, hosted by Joe Lonsdale, available via podcast and transcript, 2025. ↩ ↩2 ↩3↩4↩5↩6↩7↩8↩9↩10↩11
3.Every, Michael. "Macrostrategy versus 'Grand Macro Strategy'," Rabobank, 23 April, 2024. ↩
4.Lind, Michael. Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages Is Destroying America. Portfolio, 2023. ↩ ↩2
5. Every, Michael. "$tablecoins in an un$table $ystem" Rabobank, 21 August, 2025
