News & Updates

During the Council's Summer 2026 Board, Executive Committee, and National Commission Meeting, Gallup Chairman and Council Executive Committee Member Jim Clifton opened the day with a challenge to the standard framing of U.S. economic health. The 4.3 percent official unemployment rate reported that morning, he argued, excludes a vast number of Americans who are, effectively, […]

Dear Council on Competitiveness Community, As we move into summer, having paid our respects to America’s military personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our freedoms, we continue to build momentum toward our country’s 250th birthday and our own 40th anniversary celebration this December. Please make sure to save the dates for this special edition of the […]

Left to right: The Hon. Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO, Council on Competitiveness, Dr. Darryll J. Pines, President, University of Maryland, College Park, and Dr. David K. Wilson, President, Morgan State UniversityPhoto credit: Exquisitely Composed Images What does it take to build the United States' next great innovation ecosystem? In Maryland, we saw an […]

Dear Council on Competitiveness Community, The 2026 sprint continues! Coming off an incredibly successful Maryland edition of the “Competitiveness Conversations Across America” at the end of March, we pivoted fast to an early 2026 Board Meeting – combined with a special, virtual meeting of our Executive Committee and National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers. […]

Consider these two data sets side by side. The first, drawn from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data, shows China's R&D investment crossing above that of the United States as early as 2024 — several years before previous predictions, and the result of more than two decades of relentless acceleration. In 2000, China […]

The Council on Competitiveness is pleased to announce that Sundar Raman, Chief Executive Officer of Fabric & Home Care and P&G Ventures at Procter & Gamble, has joined its Board as Business Vice Chair. In this dual capacity, Mr. Raman leads P&G’s largest business sector—home to iconic brands like Tide, Downy, and Swiffer—while also heading […]

Dear Council on Competitiveness Community, One quarter through our 40th anniversary year, and the imperative to focus and act on the future of U.S. competitiveness has never been greater. This time next month, we will have a major update on our Board’s first meeting in 2026 – during which they, along with our Executive Committee […]

As AI technology rapidly advances, the United States faces increasingly complex competitiveness challenges, as demonstrated by these graphs. The first picture is optimistic. Weekly U.S. business applications have surged to historic highs, approaching 130,000applications per week in early 2026, according to data compiled by Apollo Global Management. For context, that figure is nearly double the […]

Dear Council on Competitiveness Community, As we move deeper into 2026 — a milestone 40th year for the Council and as our nation approaches its 250th anniversary — the intensity of our agenda and activity is accelerating. In the weeks ahead, the Council will convene two major editions of the Competitiveness Conversations Across America series […]

According to Apollo Global Management* and others — like Bridgewater —hyperscalers (Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google) are poised to invest over $600 billion in capital expenditures in 2026. This level of investment is approaching 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product —with the investment’s share of GDP more than doubling since 2023 (and growing […]