[truthguy]

George Will is correct here but nothing that he says is new. Those on Wall Street should be made aware of this as well. They are even more important than those in Washington and the State Capitals. Those in Corporate Board Rooms need to focus in on this as well. Those corporations need to be made aware that in the long run success is determined by coming up with better products and not by financial manipulation. These Boards of Directors need more scientists and engineers and less MBAs and Attorneys.

[okie01]

Those corporations need to be made aware that in the long run success is determined by coming up with better products and not by financial manipulation.

As a rule, "better products" are the realm of the small business and the entrepreneur. Large "Wall Street corporations" have never been leaders in innovation -- nor will they ever likely be. The culture just won't allow it.

The exception that proves the rule are scientifically oriented companies with a vested interest in research (e.g., pharmaceuticals).

[AmericanVictory]

Unfortunately they are too busy exercising ingenuity in deriving new types of derivatives to give any thought to bringing actual breakthrough inventions to market and thus, in the past two years, have been surpassed in this regard by the City of London.

Our world economic leadership was created by our once unmatched ability to bring new breakthrough technology to market and is unlikely to survive if we do not restore that capability.

See The real cost of Enron.

[A Strict Constructionist]

“These Boards of Directors need more scientists and engineers and less MBAs and Attorneys.”

I believe it was the head of Michelin that said if he needed MBA’s he would send his engineers back to school. He didn’t need anyone that didn’t know how to make tires first.

[redgolum]

Most Boards of Directors are looking at the next quarter, not the next decade. Long term research and development is very expensive and slow in paying back.

[lentulusgracchus]

Those on Wall Street should be made aware of this as well.

Yes, particularly since the American business practice of claiming that all employee inventions are the property of the employer -- and forcing employees to sign papers ginned up by the legal department with binding force -- extinguishes the interest in any sort of invention among great numbers of otherwise inventive people.

I once knew a petroleum engineer who invented a better mousetrap (a gravel-pack well-completion tool) while working at the old Gulf Oil. He had to sign over his patent to Gulf, which never AFAIK did anything with it. Graveyard. Oblivion. Smooth move, Gulf.

The engineer? Went on to drink his career into oblivion, too. And why not? It wasn't like he was making zillions of dollars re-equipping the petroleum industry with his nifty new tool or anything. Time for the grave.