ABSTRACT
A t one time, not so long ago, to mention GM, or RCA, or US Steel, was to use symbols of vast economic wealth and power. These were the “giant corporations” that had made the United States the most affluent country in the world, as well as a leader in political and cultural values, the country whom all others respected or envied, loved or hated, but at any rate wanted to emulate. Today, some of these giants have been dwarfed or do not exist, and others, with such names as Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Google, and Apple, have taken their place. What happened in such a short span of time is, quite simply, that one economic era was passing and another was dawning. In the preceding era, the manufacture of a vast array of products was what made the country-and its citizens-rich. The United States was very good at this: We made machines that turned out so many things so quickly that their cost came down, and almost everyone could buy them. But while we were basking in our success, and before we realized what was happening, others were learning to produce just as efficiently and more cheaply. Moreover, manufacturing itself is no longer as wealth producing as it had once been. We have entered a period characterized by the use and manipulation of data, or information, to create new products. The emerging economy has
been described as one of fashion, that is, as fickle and changeable in the products it creates and sells as the latest skirt length or tie width. To understand the changes we are facing and to which we must adapt-as well as the threats and downturns to which the economy is subject-it is imperative to know exactly what an economy is, what it does, and how it has developed historically.
