Can New Leadership Revive Our Economy?

In THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD by Fareed Zakaria, he descibes the declining US influence in the world order, other than our military power. As China, India, and other countries arise, “in every other dimension — industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural — the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” Is this inevitable, or can the US maintain a leadership position, at least in terms of our economy? He has some good suggestions as briefly noted in this interview:

"America is “becoming suspicious of the very things we have long celebrated — free markets, trade, immigration and technological change”: witness Democratic candidates’ dissing of Nafta, Republican calls for tighter immigration control, and studies showing that American students are falling behind students from other developed countries in science and math."

He goes on to decry the intransigence of these issues as quoted by the article's author, " "economic dysfunctions in America today" are the product not of “deep inefficiencies within the American economy,” but of specific government policies — which could be reformed “quickly and relatively easily” to put the country on a more stable footing. “A set of sensible reforms could be enacted tomorrow,” he says, “to trim wasteful spending and subsidies, increase savings, expand training in science and technology, secure pensions, create a workable immigration process and achieve significant efficiencies in the use of energy” — if only the current political process weren’t crippled by partisanship, special-interest agendas, a sensation-driven media, ideological attack groups and legislative gridlock."

Indeed, we have many challenges and maybe a less divicive leadership can help solve these problems, for the better of all and particularly the small businesses in America.