Has the U.S. Lost Its Innovation Edge?

This column asks a question that’s been a concern dating back to at least 1979, when the June 4th issue of Newsweek asked the question on its cover: “Innovation: Has America Lost its Edge?” The once-venerable weekly, like many print publications, fell victim a couple of years ago to the dramatic change (read innovation) in the way news is delivered, though it resumed publishing online of late.

Since that Newsweek story was published nearly 35 years ago, U.S.-led innovation not only has created havoc in the media business, it has also spawned countless new medical discoveries, treatments, and devices; transformed the United States from a large net importer of energy to a soon-to-be major exporter of energy; enabled instant global communications and the real-time transfer of knowledge and capital; and given hundreds of millions of people around the world access to an almost unlimited variety of goods and services from an equally varied group of sources and places.