News & Updates

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 […]

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. […]

From: Council on CompetitivenessDeborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO On behalf of the Council on Competitiveness, and its National Commission on Innovation and Competitiveness Frontiers, thank you for the opportunity to provide our views on development of the Administration’s new Artificial Intelligence Action Plan in response to President Trump’s January 23 Executive Order. The Council […]

In December 2024, Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department's computer systems, exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party cybersecurity provider BeyondTrust. This attack, labeled a "major incident" by Treasury officials, exposed unclassified documents and highlighted the growing sophistication of state-backed cyber espionage. According to America’s Cyber Defense Agency, China remains the most active cyber security threat to […]

Despite the increasing need for cybersecurity expertise worldwide, the size of the global cybersecurity workforce remained broadly flat at 5.5 million workers from 2023 to 2024, according to the ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. Over the same two-year time period, the need for cybersecurity workers increased from just over 9 million to approximately 10.2 million. As […]