The current edition of The Economist has an article with the following lead:Confronted by Asia’s technological rise and the financial crisis, corporate America is losing its self-confidence. It should not.The article cites those who worry that the United States is not training enough of the key people responsible for inventions, nor funding enough basic research in universities (and research labs) which will eventually lead to important new commercial products and technological innovations.
It also cites those who feel that the United States has a strong and robust system and process of innovation which is capable of accepting inventions and new technologies from anywhere they occur and successfully commercializing them. The article suggests that the concern for our innovation system may be misplaced.
I would suggest that we should worry about both our ability to invent and our ability to successfully innovate turning inventions into profitable products. Without the gatekeepers and the continuing stream of new fundamental knowledge the country's economy will not grow as fast as I would like, and the innovation system is not as well understood as it should be, but is surely more fragile than the article supposes.
The recession that we are starting will add to worrisome trends that already existed to threaten both our ability to invent and our ability to innovate technologically.
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