In the formative years of the industrial revolution it quickly became evident that economic progress depended upon substantial investments in public goods. The economy needed a growing supply of educated workers, so the government created public education. The expansion of trading relationships was made possible, in part, because traders could rely on the judicial system to mediate commercial disputes. Meanwhile, America’s continental network of roadways, railways and power grids helped create the dynamic continent-wide market [...]

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America’s infrastructure problem is truly serious and perhaps more dire than Obama let on in his State of the Union address earlier this week. What’s worse, is that for all the talk of Sputnik moments and restoring America’s competitiveness, I didn’t hear much about the kind of infrastructure investments that could really boost America’s innovation potential. Sure, Obama talked about building a network of high-speed commuter trains. But that’s in the “nice-to-have” rather than the [...]

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In my previous post I discussed why the Obama administration is right to make renewing America’s regulatory system a priority. We already have a situation where citizens armed with information are drawing attention to many important fissures in the global economy that threaten to undermine global peace and stability, issues such as climate change, food security, water scarcity, and corruption. They are increasingly willing and able to contribute to solving these issues, and they are [...]

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Earlier this week Obama issued a call to renew America’s regulatory system and not a moment too soon. A string of events over the past couple of years have underscored just how strained and ineffectual the current systems of regulation have become. The FDA’s own Science Board concluded in 2007, for example, that the agency did not have the capacity to ensure a safe food supply, with domestic businesses under its purview having risen to [...]

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This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week and rightly so. Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of a dynamic economy and society and the key to solving some of the world’s toughest challenges. Indeed as the global economy continues to sputter, it’s clear that we need entrepreneurialism more than ever. A study done last year by the Kauffman Foundation shows the extent to which job creation depends on new business creation. Using Census Bureau data, the Foundation examined [...]

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With just 5 days to go before the official book launch, media reviews are going to start flooding in. In the latest, The Economist calls Macrowikinomics a “Schumpeterian story of creative destruction” for the core institutions of modern society. Here’s a clip: How can organisations profit from the power of the web rather than being gobbled up by it? Messrs Tapscott and Williams endorse the familiar wiki-mantras about openness and “co-creation”. But they are less [...]

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A warmer climate, plentiful fresh water, an abundance of land for development, and access to rich deposits of  minerals and hydrocarbons currently frozen under Arctic sea ice. These are among the assets that could position Canada as a global power by 2050 as climate change transforms geopolitics says UCLA scientist Laurence Smith in his new book The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization’s Northern Future. There’s a preview in the Vancouver Sun today, where Smith [...]

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Watching the lingering debate about how best to avoid a repeat of the global financial crisis has been fairly depressing for someone who saw the events of 2008 as an opportunity to inject some truly creative thinking into our outmoded institutions for financial governance. This FT article by Sebastian Mallaby (author of More Money Than God) is fairly typical in that it reinforces rather than challenges the prevailing economic assumptions and offers little in the [...]

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For the past couple of months I have been working with the wonderful folks at the Lisbon Council in Brussels to prepare a report that examines the economic challenges facing Europe — and the innovative solutions that many entrepreneurs, businesses, governments and citizens are devising to succeed in networked world. The report was launched last week in Brussels at an event that also featured Europe’s new innovation commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. You can see video highlights [...]

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French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, gave the opening address to Davos yesterday. His message: this is not just a global financial crisis; it is a crisis of globalization. My overall assessment of his talk: A good job diagnosing the problems with today’s economy, but Sarkozy offers little in the way of novel or innovative solutions. Not surprisingly, he was very critical of bankers and financial power brokers who have rigged the system to extract maximum profits for [...]

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