Ever since I argued in the Harvard Business Review last year that we should pay less attention to corporate nationality and more attention to whether our nation’s work force was gaining the skills and competences it needed to compete, I’ve had the curious sense of being shoved — quite against my will — to the […]
Economic Policy
They Are Not Us: Why American Ownership Still Matters
You don’t have to be a Japan-basher to want American-based firms to thrive. As long as separate nation-states do business by different rules, it isn’t One World yet.
The New Industrial Culture: Journeys Toward Collaboration
The competitiveness of the U.S. economy depends on changes inside firms, particularly their willingness to take risks in reshaping four key relationships. Competitiveness, it turns out, depends on new kinds of collaboration.
The Great Immigration Debate
Congress is once again rewriting the immigration laws. How wide, and to whom, should we open that Golden Door? What goals should our national immigration policy serve?
Dubious Crusade: The Push for Agricultural Laissez Faire
The Bush administration is pushing an international agreement to do away with agricultural subsidies. But we have never practiced—for good reason—the policies we are preaching to others.
The Growth Puzzle
Here are two books with drastically different stories about growth and productivity in the American economy. The more persuasive of the two hasn’t got the attention it deserves.
Remaking Regulation
Regulation of the air, the water, and the workplace has made things much better. But we could achieve even better results by regulating with incentives.
Generational Alliance: Social Security as a Bank for Education and Training
The solvency of Social Security ultimately depends on economic prosperity, and economic prosperity on productivity and education. College costs, however, are becoming prohibitive, and technical training is weak. Investing part of the Social Security
An Outward-Looking Economic Nationalism
Yes to open trade; no to laissez-faire domestic policies.
The Real Welfare Problem
A new study documents that in major cities, a welfare check barely pays rent and utilities.

