Renewing and Competitiveness and Innovation in a Changing Global Economy

Boeing (Jim McNerney, president, chairman and CEO) - Thanks to the Wilson Center for providing this kind of forum where we can have a healthy, constructive dialogue around tough but important issues...The more I speak with government and business leaders across the country, the more I find that the aerospace experience is similar to those of many other industries. Across the board, our concerns for the future center on a relatively small number of equally thorny issues:

• First: economic trends that hinder innovation -- including large U.S. deficits, regulatory burdens and tax policies
• Second: trade policy -- the rise of aggressive (and sometimes government-subsidized) competitors abroad amidst a growing sentiment toward protectionism (a tough mix!) and
• Third: a shrinking U.S. industrial base fed by an even-faster shrinking pool of workers who are skilled in the problem-solving fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

I believe we have arrived at a critical intersection between U.S. competitiveness, on the one hand, and the changing global economy that isn't going to wait for us. As a nation, we must adhere to the fundamentals that created and sustained our global economic leadership and standard of living through much of the 20th Century...Unless we (and by we I mean the public and private sectors working together) take certain key actions, today's successful model will be very difficult to sustain over the long term. And if we fail in this endeavor, the U.S. will lose its edge in innovation; exports and their related good jobs will decline; and we won't have enough skilled workers to fill the well-paying jobs that remain.