Innovation Economy

Like manufacturing before it, the Innovation Economy has reached a turning point, with jobs moving to places where labor is cheaper.

Demographic decline is shrinking the pool of applicants for all but a handful of global superbrands, 80 percent of which are located in the United States.

With a diversified employment base, the Emerald City will survive as Boeing starts looking for new talent outside of Washington State. But what does the search for cheap STEM talent say about the Innovation Economy?

Talented people are starting to move to places where the cost of living is more reasonable, but a town can't just be cheap and wonderful. It also has to be connected.

Silicon Shore. Silicon Beach. Silicon Roundabout. How many different technology hubs can we have? Like the untethering of manufacturing from regional natural resources that crushed the Rust Belt, Silicon Valley's one-time advantage of a high concentration of venture capitalists matters less and less as the cost of technology falls.

Is the Big Tech lobbying effort for immigration reform just a ruse to keep wages low?

Silicon Valley and Chesapeake Energy face the same problem: the cost of extraction. The technology industry needs to get smarter about workforce development, and fast.

What happens when a place is no longer able to attract more people?

Talent is the new oil, and our universities—talent production facilities—are the best in the world.

The United States will continue to lead the world as it shifts to a Legacy Economy, but only some cities will play a role in that.

The Rust Belt will rise again.

The population is shrinking and German companies need talent, but the country has always had a strained relationship with immigrants.

Entire regional economies depend on the influx of talent. Without immigration, even the home to the world's largest technology companies would be suffering.