Our nation’s economic growth and competitiveness in 2011 will top the list of things to worry about among policymakers in Washington. The extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for another two years beginning January 1 means the debate over short-term economic stimulus is, hopefully, behind us. Now the fight over fiscal policy really begins. And the debate will focus on how to put our fiscal house in order, not whether we need to do so, which in turn means the term “investment” will be politically loaded—and hotly debated. After all, investment to some means future growth but to others is just federal pork to be cut or blocked.
So let’s delineate what meaningful investment is all about. To do so, investment should be paired with another “I” word: innovation. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech and his administration’s expected reiteration of its innovation policy next month will surely focus on economic growth and competitiveness, as will the president’s Fiscal Year 2012 budget, which begins October 1, 2011. And the key to the success of the president’s policy objectives will be how innovation powers our economy and our global competitiveness.
To read the full, original article click on this link: 2011: Year for the Ingenuity Economy
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