The government owns some of the same stocks you do. Here's why that is risky.

By Fabio Natalucci and Cam Baker

Recent deals to have the U.S. take a stake in companies mark something new: Government ownership used as a standing industrial-policy tool rather than an emergency backstop

We're in a new era of government intervention in which the U.S. is looking to back businesses that could give it an edge as it competes with China for global leadership.

When the federal government took a stake in Intel last August, the comparison came fast: This was 2008 again, with Washington, D.C., playing shareholder the way it did with big banks, AIG and General Motors after the financial crisis.

Although the comparison is tempting, this era of government intervention is starkly different. Instead of rescuing troubled companies, the government is looking to back businesses that could give it an edge in a geopolitical landscape where the U.S. and China compete for global leadership.