Okay, I admit I borrowed that line from Spiro Agnew, but I am applying it to the politicians and public intellectuals, mostly on the right side of the political spectrum, who argue that any government investment in technology represents “industrial policy,” or “picking winners and losers,” or, more recently, “corporate cronyism.” Here is a case […]…
Category: blog
What’s Truly Important about Chinese Economic Ambitions
I’m reading a lot of blather these days about how fast the Chinese economy is growing, and can continue to grow, and about how soon its total size will surpass that of the United States. These are the wrong questions to be asking. The Chinese, with four times as many people as the United States, […]…
The Scientific Method
This package of stories about the future of scientific innovation for Compass magazine challenged me, but I hope all of you find it informative. To see the complete package of stories, go to compassmag.3ds.com. This is the lead story and it has just been published. THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD New technology is changing how research […]…
A Revealing Account of How The U.S. Often Doesn’t Commercialize Its Own Technology
One of the drums that I keep beating is that we Americans need to do a better job of commercializing the ideas that come out of what I call our “idea factories”–our universities, research institutes, and weapons labs. We blew it with the transistor, for example, and the Japanese took the idea and created the […]…
Have We Reached The “Promised Land?”
Give me a break. Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group, was quoted as saying this after the latest job numbers were reported: “I think we’ve finally reached the promised land of a self-sustaining, self-reinforcing economic recovery.” It sure doesn’t feel like the promised land to millions of Americans who can’t find well-paying […]…
