Reversing U.S. Innovation Decline: What the U.S. Economy Needs for the Next Decade

Reversing U.S. Innovation Decline: What the U.S. Economy Needs for the Next Decade

Mark Warner U.S. Senator (D-VA), Hon. Co-Chair, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Rob Atkinson, President, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Weili Dai, Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Communications and Computing Business Unit, Marvell Technology Group

Steve Wright, Vice President of Strategic Communications, Silicon Valley Leadership Group - Moderator

A recent report by the Information Technology Innovation Foundation found that the U.S. ranks last out of 40 nations in progress made in the last decade on innovation-based competitiveness. When compared to other nations, we have failed to grow our innovation economy, which is measured by factors such as corporate R&D, numbers of scientists and engineers, venture capital investments, and more. The consequences of our decline are significant. Some people believe that the lack of innovation-based competitiveness contributed to the financial crisis and is a driving factor in the anemic nature of the current U.S. recovery. Unless we take steps now on an array of fronts - tax policy, trade, support for science and technology, education and others - the United States is likely to continue to slip, with deleterious implications for productivity, wage growth, business vitality and the trade deficit. Our panelists will discuss what is needed and how Washington can collaborate to play a more effective role in supporting the policies needed to restore America's innovation and leadership.

This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club's Silicon Valley Office in San Jose on January 19, 2011