Can the U.S. stave off a severe labor shortage with labor from abroad?
The U.S. right now is in a wonderful position as far as international labor is concerned. We have a shortage of educated, trained, high-tech power, and if we’d only wake up and smell the coffee, we would make it real easy to attract from around the world. They would have a brain drain, and we would have a brain gain. It would be to our advantage. The way we’re doing it now is like the Dallas Cowboys football team deciding to recruit only in Texas. Well, it’s stupid, unless they could get all other teams to say that they were limiting recruiting to their home state. So we should liberalize immigration rules, especially on high-tech labor. Q: What are some of the risks of the New Economy? A: Well, some people talk about the international imbalances. We’re in a situation where we’re financing a large part of our investment boom with foreign savings, as measured by the current-account deficit and matching capital inflow. But I think if you look at each side of that, it’s reassuring. Our tr
