Never in my lifetime have I seen Americans as mad with the “system” as they are right now.
And never have more Americans agreed on what that “system” is:
1. It is Washington. The “out to lunch and out of touch” tone and policy responses from both Democrats and so-called free market Republicans to the historical economic crisis facing American families and small businesses.
2. It is Wall Street. It is beyond galling that the most highly compensated roles in our economy over the past year have been exactly those people most responsible for the crisis!
Bankers and hedge fund managers.
This just doesn’t sit right with anyone, not even the bankers and hedge fund managers themselves!
So what to do?
Neither I nor my Growthink colleagues are ranters nor end-of-worlders. Far from it. Rather, we side with those so eloquently described by the President in his inaugural: “The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.”
We call this “Entrepreneurial Capitalism” — the core ideal that financial rewards should go more to the creators of value and less to the speculators on value.
A strong corollary to this ideal is a wholesale rejection of the nauseating spectacle of pork and favoritism masquerading as fiscal stimulus.
So come on America, we’re better than this. Let’s start showing it.
Let’s incentivize the scientists and the engineers and the operators of successful companies, not bankers and political and union hacks.
Let’s offer the 495,000 Americans that start a new business every month tax breaks and credits and regulatory relief.
And most importantly, let’s give them REAL ACCESS to capital. In turn:
1. They Will Offer Investors By Far The Best Return on Capital Out There. Over the past 10 years the “entrepreneurial sector” was the ONLY asset class other than gold to outpace inflation, with a 10-year return average greater than 30%.
2. And They Will Save The Country and Save The World. From the brave group of new companies will emerge the “chosen ones” – superstar entrepreneurs that create the “gazelle” growth companies that create the jobs and prosperity to overcome ALL of our economic challenges.
Let’s run with these gazelles.
In 2010, this means emerging technology. Internet & Software, Digital Media & Entertainment, Healthcare & Biotechnology, and Green & Alternative Energy companies.
Find them. Back them. Win with them.
They are cure for what ails us – as individuals and as a nation.