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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (47151)	11/13/2010 12:18:03 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 71588

Schramm's Law reveals key to restoring America's economic growth By: Ralph Benko OpEd Contributor November 10, 2010 Economist Dr. Arthur Laffer’s famous curve provided an earlier era with the recipe for prosperity. It was a simple, irrefutable, axiom, showing that too high tax rates, by throttling economic activity, would stifle government revenue. (President Kennedy made the identical point.) The Laffer Curve powered America out of the horrible stagflation of the 1970’s—an economy even worse than today’s. We now enter a new political epoch. It demands a fresh axiom, Schramm’s Law: “The single most important contributor to a nation’s economic growth is the number of startups that grow to a billion dollars in revenue within 20 years.” We seek to emerge from the Great Recession while the incumbent administration flounders about with ineffectual and counterproductive remedies. President Obama squandered so much political capital that the voters gave his entire party a “shellacking” (his word).Voters gave the Republicans a new and massive majority in the House — the constitutional source of taxing and spending. We voted Republican notwithstanding serious concerns about whether the Republicans have a formula for economic growth. Well, to the extent our concern was well-founded, the Republicans are in luck because the solution to their dilemma arrives in the nick of time. One of the brightest stars in the economic growth universe has presented a fresh axiom, recited above as Schramm’s Law. It readily can be used as a compass to guide the economy back onto a strong growth path. The most concentrated center of expertise on entrepreneurship in the world is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas city. Its president, Carl Schramm offered in a recent interview with Forbes’ publisher Rich Karlgaard an astute observation about how flourishing startups create jobs and prosperity. It is so succinct, elegant and empirically grounded as to deserve to be termed a “law.” As Karlgaard astutely notes in his October 20 Forbes’ column, America’s historic average growth rate is 3.3%. That or more will generate jobs and prosperity. China’s economy, under the loving guidance of Supply Side guru and Nobel Prize winner Robert Mundell, by the way, has been growing at or near double-digit rates for 30 years. Four or five percent growth here, while ambitious, certainly is attainable. Karlgaard observes: “Schramm says the U.S. economy, given its large size, needs to spawn something like 75 to 125 billion-dollar babies per year to feed the country’s post- World War II rate of growth. Faster growth requires even more successful startups.” Karlgaard continues: “None of our problems—deficits, debts, unemployment, mortgage defaults, malaise—will improve with no growth or low growth. We need average growth of 3.3% or better. And now, thanks to Kaufman’s Carl Schramm, we have an important clue about how to get that done.” Schramm’s Law may be all that our new leaders need to develop a formula to create a social and economic climate where 100 ambitious strivers a year — 100 people, out of a population of 300 million — can flourish. This formula is not quite so straightforward as Laffer’s prescription to cut marginal tax rates and strengthen the dollar (tax-rate cutting and a strong dollar surely will be part of the recipe). Yet it doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to imagine what is required to nurture and encourage creation of 100 successful mid-sized companies each year. But to the extent that our policy makers desire guidance, they may look to the heartland of America, Kansas City. There they will discover Carl Schramm, head of one of America’s most respected philanthropies, who surely would clearly explain the precise steps for America to be restored to full employment, healthy housing, and prosperity. Ralph Benko, author of “The Websters’ Dictionary: How to Use the Web to Transform the World,” is a senior economics advisor to The American Principles Project. washingtonexaminer.com

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (47151)	11/14/2010 2:12:05 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Barack Obama left Asia with a greater foothold in the emerging nations that could help shape the American economy for years. But his failure to deliver on his own high expectations on key economic issues served notice that the global stage is not nearly his for the taking. The president headed back to Washington on Sunday with mixed results to show from his longest foreign trip abroad as president, an exhausting 10-day tour through India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan. His first two stops yielded dramatic diplomatic successes and memorable images in two booming Asian democracies that will only become more important strategically to the U.S. But the narrative soured once Obama arrived in Seoul, South Korea, for a meeting of the Group of 20 developed and emerging economies. Obama failed to achieve a free-trade deal with Korea that was to have been the biggest trophy of his trip, and instead of banding with America against China's currency manipulation, several countries aligned themselves against the U.S. The trip ended anticlimactically in Yokohama, Japan, with an uneventful gathering of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. But Obama has no time to breathe easy. Almost as soon as he gets back to Washington he'll have to grapple with combative Republican congressional leaders at a White House meeting, then head back overseas for a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Overall, it was a mix of successes and deep disappointments," Mike Green, senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of the trip. "Two great visits in India and Indonesia, a real disappointment in Seoul, and a reassuring but curiously unambitious visit to Japan."