Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

We should want companies to shed workers they no longer need. Productivity gains flow to lower prices, higher wages, and long-term growth. Don’t slow innovation—accelerate it.

The culture of digital and AI opposition is a growing threat to American prosperity and power. Unless we return at least to neutrality, other nations unburdened by this self-doubt will surpass us.

The Trump administration’s tariff pressure reflects a transactional shift in U.S. trade policy, linking reciprocity to investment execution, regulatory predictability, and geopolitical alignment. Korea can adapt to this new playbook or absorb the economic consequences.

Culture matters. Just as England’s discomfort with industrialization weakened its economy, today’s U.S. elite skepticism risks becoming a collective headwind against digital progress.

The United States is at serious risk of becoming dependent on China for a wide array of key technologies and products, which would significantly shift the global balance of techno-economic power. Only fundamental policy change can potentially keep the United States from defeat.

Letting Chinese EV and battery firms build in America wouldn’t revive manufacturing. It would reduce U.S. market share, hollow out domestic capabilities, and create new strategic dependencies.

Davos made clear that many “allies” would rather denounce the United States and chase access to Chinese markets than bear the burdens required to sustain the Western alliance and democratic system.

In every wave of U.S. industrial leadership, other nations have attacked American multinationals, especially tech firms, for blatantly protectionist reasons.

Trade is not an end in itself; it is a tool the U.S. should use to build allied power and constrain the CCP. We must move beyond trade agreements toward comprehensive strategic partnerships.

If the year ahead in technology and innovation policy lives up to its potential, it could be a consequential one because there is a long list of important issues on the table. Herein, we offer 10 that are on top of our minds.