News & Updates

Global economic and geopolitical uncertainty is no longer episodic; it has become structural. Non-financial U.S. corporations are holding approximately $7.9 trillion in liquid assets — roughly 12 percent of their total — a level that reflects elevated interest rates and heightened risk sensitivity rather than capital scarcity.1 At the same time, traditional pathways for deploying […]

Recent data on global manufacturing output spotlights a stark reality: China now accounts for 35 percent of the world’s manufacturing, nearly three times the United States’ share. The remaining 53 percent is spread across the rest of the world. This concentration is of strategic significance. Manufacturing underpins innovation ecosystems, supply chain resilience, national security, and […]

Reflections from the Global Federation of Competitiveness Board Council Meeting at the University of Pittsburgh When I stood before the global federation of competitiveness leaders gathered at University of Pittsburgh last month, I opened with three numbers that frame our current reality: One trillion dollars in global AI infrastructure investment over the next two years. […]

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data underscore a pivotal trend in the global race for innovation leadership. In 2023, the United States invested $823 billion in research and development (R&D) — the largest total globally — but China is rapidly closing the gap, reaching $781 billion and growing nearly twice as fast (8.9 […]

The numbers tell a stark story: China now graduates roughly 1.25 million engineersand computer scientists annually—five times the U.S. total of 250,000. Over just twodecades, China’s output of bachelor’s degrees in these fields increased tenfold,master’s degrees by 15 times, and doctorates by 20 times. Meanwhile, U.S. growthhas been comparatively modest, widening the domestic gap in […]

The regulation of public utilities is an arcane art practiced in the U.S. at the state and federal government levels. Public utilities, also called public service companies, include such vital infrastructure industries as electricity, natural gas distribution and water. These private companies are granted monopoly franchises to serve specified communities. In return for the monopoly […]

Having just launched in November 2022, ChatGPT has grown to 800 million weekly users as of May 2025. In July 2025, OpenAI data show that states including Utah, Vermont, Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Colorado, New Hampshire, Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, Montana, and California have the fastest quarter-over-quarter user growth of the service. […]

Seagoing trade is one of the cornerstones of our modern, globalized economy. More than 70 percent of the world’s trade by value is shipped by ocean, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the volume of goods traded has grown from 6 billion tons in 2000 to nearly 13 billion tons today, […]

The United States has cemented its dominance in the global space race, accounting for 82 percent of all objects launched into space in 2023 — up from just 46 percent in 2000. Of the 2,664 objects launched globally last year, 2,176 were American. Federal investment and a growing cadre of private sector entrants are driving […]

The United States’ national debt is the highest of any nation in the world, standing at $36.22 trillion, according to the Senate Joint Economic Committee. Put another way, the U.S. national debt now stands at 121 percent of GDP, the highest it has since WWII and one of the highest levels of any advanced economy. […]