Posts Tagged ‘American Resurgence’

Ten years ago, in the December 1987 issue of Planning, the journal of the American Planning Association, Rutgers University researchers, Frank and Deborah Popper published a widely cited paper calling for massive federal intervention in the Great Plains. Their words: “The federal government’s commanding task on the Plains for next century will be to recreate the…

I noted last week that the Sunday New York Times (on April 27, 1997) carried a lead story called, “World beaters,” signaling to the rest of the media establishment that it is now OK to acknowledge America’s high performing economy. Sure enough, two days later USA Today’s front page lead story was entitled, “Economy hitting on all cylinders.” Of…

Hellooo. After 15 years of hand-wringing about America’s economic and competitive decline, The New York Timesfinally came to its senses last Sunday — with a lead story on the front page it its “Week in Review” section called “Worldbeaters: Puffed Up by Prosperity, U.S. Struts Its Stuff.” The rest of the American establishment is now on…

This past weekend, national news was dominated by pictures and stories from floods and fires, a media two-fer, in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I paid special attention to the Grand Forks story because I have visited there many times over the years. I have always viewed Grand Forks as an embodiment of Americana. It has…

The future of this hemisphere depends on decisions which governments are making today, and which governments — including the U.S. government — will be making in the next five years. Yet there is a virtual blackout in the current presidential contest on foreign and national security policy issues — and, unfortunately, no one seems to…

TOLEDO, Ohio — I spent a couple of days this past weekend here in the heart of the Rust Belt. I visited the University of Toledo, where I had been invited to give the commencement address — and I learned about the University’s National Center for Tooling and Precision Components, one of several initiatives to…

LOS ANGELES — Eastern media love to hate California: “The Promised Land now seems like the Valley of the Damned,” opined U.S. News & World Report in the wake of recent natural disasters — earthquakes, fires and mudslides — which came on top of recession, deep cuts in defense spending, cratering real estate values, a…

Bozeman, Mont.— Sit, fight or run. These are your options if you live in a state racked by the changes in America’s New Economy. For example, demographic change is causing Montana to lose one of its two seats in Congress. And federal policy has taken its toll. Transportation deregulation has left many Montana communities stranded,…

October 12 is Columbus Day, and this year we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the landing of Columbus in the islands of the Western Hemisphere. The state of Colorado, in 1907, was the first to declare Columbus Day a legal holiday. Pueblo, in 1905, was the first to unveil a monument to Columbus. The rest…

A few weeks back I participated in a conversation where a big name business leader held forth about how the Japanese had “taken over” the U.S. auto industry. Heads nodded in somber agreement as the high status “expert” intoned a parade of horribles about the ills of Detroit and the shortcomings of top management, many…

As in most other Super Cities, Los Angeles’ economy is changing. Nothing new here. Things always change and churn — particularly in a multicultural society such as Southern California, where the region’s politics, economics and demography are best described by words like freedom, turbulence, innovation and choice. There is, unfortunately, a strong tendency for people,…

Mexico City– sometimes a trip to another country helps you get a better perspective on things going on in your own. That happened to me last week during four days in Mexico City. Organized by the New York City-based CEO Institute, the trip featured four days of non-stop meetings with leaders of Mexican business and…

These holidays- Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s – mean different things to different people. For me the holidays conjure up thoughts of home. But what is “home” in a country where one out of five people moves every year? In the years since I left my birthplace, I have lived in Lafayette, Ind.; Galesburg, Ill.; Oslo,…

In 1976, the late futurist, Herman Kahn, predicted that tourism (including travel) would become the world’s No. 1 industry by the year 2000. Good instincts. Wrong year. According to a recent study by Wharton Econometrics, tourism became the world’s No. 1 industry in 1988, measured by employment — with more than 100 million people employed…

In its Sept. 30 cover story “The War for the West”Newsweek magazine describes an American West that resembles the real West about as much as a Hollywood movie script. Down to its cover art, it’s a rehash of a Sept. 17, 1979 Newsweek cover story, “The Angry West.” Here is a summary of what Newsweek missed: Cities. The West is…

December. It’s the month when all the forecasters come forth to issue pronouncements for next year’s interest rates, rates of inflation and growth in gross national product. But with so many wild cards in the deck, will these forecasts make much sense? I don’t think so. The accuracy of today’s forecasts depend primarily on events…

“Shocking.” “The government is cooking the books.” These are among comments heard from business leaders and economic observers when last week’s report on the gross national product “failed” to signal a recession. When the U.S. Department of Commerce pegged GNP growth at 1.8% for the third quarter, you might have thought analysts and commentators would…

America is going through its own perestroika. This is evident from dramatic changes in demography, family life and the workplace, and by major structural changes in the economy and the global marketplace. It is sometimes useful to examine this economic and social change at the micro level, where the rubber meets the road. This approach,…

Labor shortages are a growing problem for American business. The reason: Right behind the post-World War II baby boom generation is a baby bust generation, a much smaller group of Americans between the ages of 6 and 23 years. As a result, there will be at least 20%fewer entrants into the job market in the…

An increased savings rate is one reason why we’ll see a major global economic boom in this decade. Savings fuel investment. Investment creates growth and opportunities. Politicians in Washington are giving more attention to stimulating savings and investment. The battle between President Bush and congressional Democrats over reinstating a tax exemption for capital gains is…

The idea is spreading that we are on the edge of another major global expansion. This is the view of a minority, but it’s a growing minority. It includes highly respected economists, business leaders and other observers who refuse to get mired in short-term debates about when the next recession will come. Victor Kiam, the…

As Americans join the rest of the world in celebrating the historic political and economic changes sweeping the communist world, the United States is experiencing its own perestroika, a process of profound economic and social changes that we call the “new economy”. America’s new economy has many dimensions. One is demographic. The graying of America…