U.S. Faces Looming Tech Decline

by Declan McCullagh - August 24th, 2010 - CNet

Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini offered a depressing set of observations about the economy and the Obama administration Monday evening, coupled with a dark commentary on the future of the technology industry if nothing changes.

Otellini's remarks during dinner at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum here amounted to a warning to the administration officials and assorted Capitol Hill aides in the audience: unless government policies are altered, he predicted, "the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here."

Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who warned this week that the U.S. faces a huge tech decline.

The U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business, Otellini said, that there is likely to be "an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we're seeing today in Europe--this is the bitter truth."

This did not start with Obama alone. The huge growth in financial services (i.e. Wall Street) started back in the Clinton administration as big corporations persuaded Washington to create more and more regulations to strangle small business and banks. Bush continued it with oppressive rules like Sarbanes-Oxley.

That does not mean that the huge acceleration of the process under Obama has not crossed a line that is now too burdensome for free enterprise to survive. Business today spends an inordinate amount of its profits 'bribing' government just to leave it alone. Too much to claim we are a nation of free enterprise. Today we are a nation of 'crony capitalism', or 'corporate socialism' if you will. Call it whichever term you prefer, we are no longer a free nation.