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A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think

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Transcript

Question: Is the golden age of American business over?

Thomas Cooley: I think that's a somewhat crazy idea. If you look at the growth of prosperity in this country, it's basically continued unabated. And the truth of the matter is that what drives this economy is innovation and ideas. And the fact that manufacturing shifts around the world, even some services shift around the world doesn't mean that American business is finished. What is going to be true is that we're going to see a lot of–– we are seeing a lot of economic growth elsewhere in the world. In China, in India, in Brazil, the emerging market countries are experiencing just extraordinary changes in the economic well-being. And many American companies like General Electric or like CitiBank see a lot of their future growth as taking place in those markets. But the fact that they're going to do well, only bodes well for us, not anything else, so.

Recorded: 3/21/08