With the US election just over, it has never been more important to consider what the next President must do to keep America competitive.
In this time of crisis, Washington has focused on the immediate and the short term. Lost are the more basic questions we really need to worry about: What is the fundamental competitive position of the US in the global economy? And what must we do to remain strong when other nations are making rapid progress?
The stark truth is that the U.S. has no long-term economic strategy-no coherent set of policies to ensure competitiveness over the long haul. Strategy embodies clear priorities, based on understanding the strengths we need to preserve and the weaknesses that threaten our prosperity the most.
Strategy addresses what to do, but also what not to do. In dealing with a crisis, experience teaches us that steps to address the immediate problem must support a long-term strategy.
Yet it is far from clear that we are taking the steps most important to America's long-term economic prosperity.
Image: A photo shows the front pages of major newspapers in Beijing. | Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Why Lehman Bros went bust; what it means for you
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