We Are Not Alone and May Not Be First
From Conversations with Dave comes my comment
Third and last point. There is considerable concern, rightly so, regarding unemployment. The long term health of any society depends upon employment that generates income that can accumulate into wealth which is then invested, and so the wheel turns. It seems to me that the general feeling is that we can stimulate our way out of this. That may be true, but some of the ways in which this stimulus is being applied (see Senator McCain's current rants on this subject) are atrocious. The stimulus needs to be applied to industries with true, long term potential value. We need to recognize that David Ricardo's observations still ring true in many ways and what got us to here is not going to get us to there. Protectionism and nationalism is not, regardless of what other countries may do, a long term fix. Obama has advanced some good ideas on this and they need to be taken more seriously (J. Drogan, personal communications, December 13, 2009).
The December 21 & 28 edition of The New Yorker brings Green Giant describing China's aggressive movement into industries with true, long term potential value. This causes me to suggest that overcommitment to ideaology and purity may have some associated risks that need to be fully understood.
James Drogan
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http://hbr.org/2009/07/restoring-american-competitiveness/ar/1
The White House issued a major strategy paper on Innovation last Sept. as well. And on the subject of innovation at the enterprise level that's something I've been taking a hard look at for some time:
http://llinlithgow.com/bizzX/2009/12/a_bit_of_xmas_cheer_innovation.html
The fact of the matter is that there is little innovation going on, it's a major challenge and the biggest obstacle is company politics.Resolving that will sort the winners from the survivors from the road kills. Of which I expect many.