In 2008, world GDP will surpass $53 trillion. Capital, labor, and ideas now circle the globe at the speed of light. Financial markets and supply-lines are more integrated than ever. Some three billion people are connecting to the modern economy for the first time. New players are creating new ideas and new enterprises in new places. The Progress & Freedom Foundation's Center for Global Innovation will work to advocate openness, innovation, and dynamism in the global digital economy. This means free trade, stable monetary policy, limited international regulation, smart immigration policy, and protection of intellectual property. It also means enlightened education and tax policies at home. The Center's goal is to offer new research and more effective arguments to explain the broad benefits of American technology and globalization to the public. The Center will also educate policymakers on specific policies that will expand (or damage) American prosperity in this new era.

Globalization brings large benefits to poor and rich alike. But it also brings big new challenges. Globalization, for example, not only empowers companies and consumers, it also empowers governments to reach across the world and touch firms previously outside their jurisdiction. New monetary arrangements lead to charges of “currency manipulation,” proposed tariffs, and the threat of a trade war. The intangible nature of intellectual property adds a new layer of complexity to global governance. Rising global wealth leads many to warn of impending energy shortages, zero-sum oil wars, and global warming. As the gap between the world's rich and poor shrinks, may assert that rising inequity in the U.S. is leaving millions of Americans behind. With so many large changes coming so fast, populist sentiment is on the rise. Many urge the closing of borders to people, capital, and trade.

Without precedent, America in the coming decades will face the prospect of large capitalist nations challenging its longstanding economic and technological hegemony. After a century as the world’s dominant and unrivaled economy, can America even begin to imagine, let alone grasp, its new place in the world? Will we retreat from the global economy? Or will we confidently exploit the opportunities of a freer world and find ways to protect commerce and prosperity? The Center for Global Innovation will explore the policy implications of these issues and will work to promote sensible, market oriented solutions. Find out more about the Center for Global Innovation at www.pff.org/cgi.

See press release on the launch of the Center for Global Innovation.