Unleashing the Second American Century: Four Forces for Economic Dominance

by Joel Kurtzman Narrated by Erik Synnestvedt

Overview

Political gridlock in Washington... the lingering effects of the financial crisis... structural problems such as unemployment and the skills gap of our work force... the mediocre K-12 educational system. Are our best days behind us? Joel Kurtzman persuasively shows why all the talk about America's decline is not only baseless but dead wrong. Our best days, are, in fact, ahead of us. Four transformational forces-unrivaled manufacturing depth, soaring levels of creativity, massive new energy sources, and gigantic amounts of capital waiting to be invested-have been gathering steam. When combined they will provide the foundation for a much stronger economy, robust growth, and broad-based prosperity that will propel the United States to new heights. One endlessly repeated anxiety is that “we don't make anything here, anymore.” The reality, though, is that the US is the world's dominant manufacturing power-and growing. American companies produce 20 percent of the world's goods in the US and perhaps another 15 to 20 percent outside our country. And much of what we make is recession-proof-such as software, jetliners, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and food. Kurtzman reveals the stories of the unsung heroes who are the creative force leading the second American century, describing the payoff of the investment in our best minds. American companies have stunning levels of talent and creativity at work in the world's fastest growing economic sectors-biotech, pharmaceuticals, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, advanced manufacturing, materials science, and aeronautical and space engineering. In these fields, Americans are without peer and consistently break new ground. We are coming to the realization that America is no longer beholden to the despots of foreign energy. Thanks to advances in technology developed in the US, we now have among the world's largest energy reserves, and are richer in energy resources than Saudi Arabia and second only to Russia. These three strengths-manufacturing, soaring levels of creativity, and energy independence-will be magnified and synergistically combined with the unprecedented amount of capital that now lies idle. US companies of all types are hoarding cash and securities worth more than $4 trillion-an amount larger than the world's fourth largest economy, Germany. When the money starts flowing and is invested, it will rapidly propel every part of the economy forward.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“[Kurtzman] offers an upbeat, mouthwatering forecast…[his] overall thesis is certainly plausible and makes for an intriguing and at times very informative read.” —Wall Street Journal

“If you want to feel good about America's future, read Kurtzman.”—Financial Times

“Fasten your seat belts. If Kurtzman...is right, the American economy is fueled for an unprecedented takeoff into a new era of economic growth...[Unleashing the Second American Century] offer[s] many exciting possibilities for America's future.”—Kirkus

Kirkus Reviews

2013-12-02
Fasten your seat belts. If Kurtzman (Startups that Work: Surprising Research on What Makes or Breaks a New Company, 2005, etc.) is right, the American economy is fueled for an unprecedented takeoff into a new era of economic growth. The author, former editor in chief of both Harvard Business Review and Strategy + Business, has little patience for the "doomsayers" and the "doomsday preppers" born of political negativity. Though he agrees that fearmongering is not a crime, he sets out to reassert America's immense strengths and bright future. Kurtzman assumes that the fuel for the coming economic surge will be provided by four transformational forces: 1) the continuing strengths of the country's manufacturing sector (still the world's largest and most productive); 2) the rapid approach of energy self-sufficiency; 3) the accumulation of around $5 trillion in the bank accounts of corporations and reserves of the banking system; 4) the promising future of collaboration among government, university research and the private sector (this may be the most intriguing to many readers). Kurtzman takes readers on a tour through the multiple world-class medical-research institutions that have set up shop in Boston, companies that exemplify how pioneering advances in medicine and medical technology are being made at a rapid rate. For decades, the author argues, America's manufacturing and economic strengths have been based on advanced research and the development of a strong educational infrastructure--e.g., Boston-based MIT. Now, that tripartite collaboration is producing a new generation of technology based on robotics, much of which will begin to nullify the cost advantage of outsourced labor. "For the United States, the future looks bright," writes Kurtzman. "The country has abundant new sources of energy, high levels of creativity, the world's largest manufacturing base--which is getting larger--and enough private capital to turn anyone's plan into reality." Great booster writing offering many exciting possibilities for America's future.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171358303
Publisher:	Ascent Audio
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Come walk with me…

If we proceed southwest on Third Street, which until recently was an empty, overgrown-with-weeds street in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, MA, we will see the future laid out before our eyes. The old rubber and metal-bending factories in this part of town are long gone—bulldozed flat forty years ago to make way for a giant NASA research facility that was planned, laid out, but never built. Interest in returning to the moon waned, budget deficits grew, and, let’s face it, America has always been a country with a preposterously short attention span.

And then something remarkable happened. This Cambridge neighborhood became home to a new wave of American-led innovation that is transforming the world. There are many elements to that wave—advances in digital, robotic, space, and aeronautic technology, for example. But my tour will take you past just one aspect of what is now taking shape—the biomedical corridor.

That means I will ignore Amazon’s, newly leased 100,000 square feet of research space, and Google’s 40,000 square feet of research space, and Microsoft’s, I.B.M.’s, and Nokia’s research centers. These are the still-vibrant remnants of a previous age of American-led invention and creativity. That era spawned a myriad of software and hardware companies, chip developers, the Internet, the electronic economy, ATMs, smartphones, GPS, electron microscopes, and a multitude of apps. For the United States, most of that is a little less than cutting edge.

What’s going on now is different from what went on then. What is taking place now in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, a city of just 100,000 people across the Charles River from Boston, is happening on a different level. And, if in previous eras America’s ferocious creative outbursts changed the world, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Not by a long shot.

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