‘Gathering Storm’ Approaching Category 5
Five years after the National Academies released Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a stark report showing America’s lagging capacity to innovate and compete, a sequel is out, and — no surprise — the trends are still mostly in the wrong direction.
The update has the same name, but a new subtitle: “Rapidly Approaching Category 5.”
The report committee, led by Norman R. Augustine, the lead author of the original report and retired chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp., specifically notes, among many issues, that money for innovation initiatives from the economic stimulus package is a one-time blast when what is needed is sustained growth. Here’s Augustine on the CNBC show Squawk Box last Friday:
Here are some sobering data points from the report:
In 2009, 51 percent of United States patents were awarded to non-United States companies.
Federal funding of research in the physical sciences as a fraction of G.D.P. fell by 54 percent in the 25 years after 1970. The decline in engineering funding was 51 percent.
Sixty-nine percent of United States public school students in fifth through eighth grade are taught mathematics by a teacher without a degree or certificate in mathematics.
On Friday I asked Augustine in an e-mail what shift is most needed in thinking, and spending, to turn the situation around. Here’s his trenchant reply:
Everybody is concerned about a double-dip recession but I’m more concerned that what recovery we’ve seen so far is a “dead-cat bounce” where we get stuck in an era of perpetually high unemployment because we’re not addressing long-term challenges. Also, by focusing so much on short-term bursts of spending, we’re not paying enough attention to core problems like quality of teaching and the need for scientific research investments that could pay huge dividends in the long term. We’re in a marathon, not a sprint.
The entire report is vital reading for anyone interested in fostering the depth and breadth of inquiry and enterprise required to give the best chance of “ peak us coming before peak everything.”
