If you watched Michael Sanera?s weekend presentation about the original Progressives, you?ll remember his discussion about the concerted effort to invest the presidency with as much power as possible.

That presentation came to mind as I read Bloomberg Business Week?s new article, ?Obama: Venture Capitalist-in-Chief,? which describes the president?s efforts to insert himself into economic decisions that no one person is able to make:

Meet the country’s venture capitalist-in-chief, President Barack Obama. By the end of 2011, the White House plans to channel more than $50 billion to thousands of clean-technology companies through tax credits, low-interest guaranteed loans, and grants. Add in money for a “smart grid,” research, and consumer tax breaks, such as the $7,500 credit for buying an electric car, and the commitment rises to $69 billion.

Obscured by the epic political battles over health care and financial regulation, Obama has turned the government into the chief financier of a manufacturing base for clean-energy technology. He envisions thriving new industries putting Americans to work churning out green products such as high-performance batteries, electric cars, low-energy lights, super-efficient air conditioners, wind turbines, and solar panels.

That level of government intervention in a selected business sector adds up to a new American industrial policy?and it’s stirring a heated debate among economists and academics. The Administration’s clean energy assistance is “undoubtedly one of the larger efforts” to create an industrial policy in U.S. history, says Harvard Business School Professor Josh Lerner.

The president?s faith in his own powers to discern the best use of Americans? resources ? as opposed to allowing Americans to make their own choices about the use of those resources ? brings to mind the following words from Ludwig von Mises: ?Every socialist is a disguised dictator.?