Unleashing the Second American Centur..., Joel Kurtzman
Unleashing the Second American Centur..., Joel Kurtzman
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Unleashing the Second American Century
Four Forces for Economic Dominance

Author: Joel Kurtzman

Narrator: Erik Synnestvedt

Unabridged: 11 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 03/01/2014


Synopsis

Political gridlock in Washington... the lingering effects of the financial crisis... structural problems such as unemployment and the skills gap of our work force... the mediocre K-12 educational system. Are our best days behind us?

Joel Kurtzman persuasively shows why all the talk about America’s decline is not only baseless but dead wrong. Our best days, are, in fact, ahead of us.

Four transformational forces—unrivaled manufacturing depth, soaring levels of creativity, massive new energy sources, and gigantic amounts of capital waiting to be invested—have been gathering steam. When combined they will provide the foundation for a much stronger economy, robust growth, and broad-based prosperity that will propel the United States to new heights.

One endlessly repeated anxiety is that “we don’t make anything here, anymore.” The reality, though, is that the US is the world’s dominant manufacturing power—and growing. American companies produce 20 percent of the world’s goods in the US and perhaps another 15 to 20 percent outside our country. And much of what we make is recession-proof—such as software, jetliners, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and food.

Kurtzman reveals the stories of the unsung heroes who are the creative force leading the second American century, describing the payoff of the investment in our best minds. American companies have stunning levels of talent and creativity at work in the world’s fastest growing economic sectors—biotech, pharmaceuticals, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, advanced manufacturing, materials science, and aeronautical and space engineering. In these fields, Americans are without peer and consistently break new ground.

We are coming to the realization that America is no longer beholden to the despots of foreign energy. Thanks to advances in technology developed in the US, we now have among the world’s largest energy reserves, and are richer in energy resources than Saudi Arabia and second only to Russia.

These three strengths—manufacturing, soaring levels of creativity, and energy independence—will be magnified and synergistically combined with the unprecedented amount of capital that now lies idle. US companies of all types are hoarding cash and securities worth more than $4 trillion—an amount larger than the world’s fourth largest economy, Germany. When the money starts flowing and is invested, it will rapidly propel every part of the economy forward.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Aaron

In short: this book is an Economics reality check that needs it's own reality check. How does that make sense? Well on one hand, I cannot think of anything the book really gets wrong about America. We really DO have all the raw resources to truly unleash the second American Century. It's also a breat......more

Goodreads review by Rick

Couple high points: Fascinating proposal that rising fuel prices through the early 2000‘s into 2008 were actually a contributing factor to the house and crash of 2008. Real wage is raised very little but increased fuel costs added as much as $200 a month in additional expenses. Combined with reckless......more

Goodreads review by Alek

The section that seemed to say that "low-income home-buyers" (those making less than $50,000 a year in 2008, apparently) being "in cahoots" with sub- prime mortgage lenders and thus causing the Great Recession put a very sour taste in my mouth. I think the author puts too much emphasis on America's......more

This book mixes some consistent optimism about the future of economic growth in the US with some interesting data. Kurtzman plants himself in opposition to the new stagnation school of economics (Tyler Cowen and Robert Gordon come to mind). In order to get through it you have to live through a dose......more