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| Economy |
| Deficits and the Chinese Challenge |
| 2009-10-13 |
| The Americans have not had to deal with a true economic rival since the British more than half a century ago. America today is as unaccustomed to global economic competition as the British were at their apex. The U.S. often seems lumbering and ill-suited to the demands of economic rivalry. The only way to avoid Britain's fate and meet the challenge of China is to reinvigorate economic life. This is a multiyear endeavor that must be done primarily through innovation, not legislation. America needs to retool its domestic economy to build on the global success of many U.S. companies. It must focus on inventing new products and generating new ideas, rather than defending the rusty industries of yesterday. Fights over health care and climate change are the cultural equivalent of fiddling while Rome burns. China thrives because it is hungry, dynamic, scared of failure and convinced that it should be a leading force in the world. That is why America thrived a century ago. Today, such hunger and dynamism seem less evident in American life than petulance that the world is not cooperating. The U.S. is in danger of assuming that because it has been a dominant nation on the world stage, it must continue to be so. That is a recipe for becoming Britain. |
| Posted by:Glereper Snase8190 |
| #4 Mr. Karabell is the author of "Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World's Prosperity Depends on It," Of course, the difference with Britain is that they had political and military control over their trade empire. Supply of goods/materials could only be stopped by another nation going to war against them. Very far from the current USA/China situation where China could just stop shipping any goods it chooses, as it has just done with 30 minerals it deemed strategic. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2009-10-13 20:35 |
| #3 America these days has an economy less dependent on making things and more dependent on legal concepts like intellectual property. Go ahead, try to write some software - you're going to infringe on someone's patent, somewhere, and six months after release you'll get a lawyer's letter informing you that your business is now over. IP infringment is an industry in the United States. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-10-13 15:39 |
| #2 It must focus on inventing new products and generating new ideas, rather than defending the rusty industries of yesterday. We do. Then the designs are then promptly shipped to China for manufacture. Invention is not the problem, it's cutting out Americans of the rest of the value chain that is the problem. The 2% that do the inventing can't carry the 98% that don't. Add the value of another 20% of jobs that could manufacture (and export) the products invented here and that could be the basis for a vibrant economy. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-10-13 12:35 |
| #1 Today, such hunger and dynamism seem less evident in American life than petulance that the world is not cooperating. Makes me think of all those overweight welfare recipients lined up for government money in Detroit. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-10-13 12:24 |