The growing tension between the Obama administration and business is a cause for national concern. The president has lost the confidence of employers, whose worries over taxes and the increased costs of new regulation are holding back investment and growth. The government must appreciate that confidence is an imperative if business is to invest, take risks and put the millions of unemployed back to productive work.
America's get-up-and-go entrepreneurial culture and adventurous spirit outlived the passing of the frontier, and still inspires and nourishes millions. No other country has a population so habituated to self-help and self-improvement. American managers have consistently led the world in investing in new technologies and providing high-tech training to exploit them. No other country has met the requirements of an emerging economic system that needed people to be mobile both physically and psychologically. No other country invests so much in business training and retraining – on top of having the largest and world's best graduate and undergraduate business schools.
The energy in business is matched by a unique and remarkable world of finance capital that funds young talent and new ideas, and accepts the risks associated with high-tech, high-growth, high-concept companies.