This is the Tom Hartman Program.

Our book today in the Tom Hartman Book Club

is The Entrepreneurial State by Mariana Mazzuccato and this is from the introduction titled Thinking Big

again. Across the globe countries including in the developing world look to

emulate the success of the US economy. In doing so they look at the power of

quote market-driven and quote mechanisms versus Europe or the ex-Soviet Union. But the United

States is not what it seems. The preacher of the small state free market doctrine

has for decades been directing large public investment programs

in technology and innovation that underlie its past and current economic

success. From the internet to biotech and even shale gas, the US state has been the key driver

of innovation-led growth, willing to invest in the most uncertain phase in the innovation cycle

and let business hop on for the easier ride down the way.

If the rest of the world wants to emulate the U.S. model, they should do as the United States

actually did, not as it says it did, more state, not less. A key part of this lesson

should be to learn how to organize, direct, and evaluate state investments so that they can

be strategic, flexible, and mission-oriented.

Only in this way will top minds find it an honor to work for the state.

This is something that needs to be understood not only by the rest of the world but in the

United States itself where the dominant political narrative is endangering funding for future

innovation and economic growth. In 2013 U.S. government spending for basic research fell below what it was a decade earlier,

and most likely will continue to fall due to congressional gridlock over the public budget.

Rather than static discussions about the size of the deficit,

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