Published Friday, October 28, 2005 in East Valley Opinions of the Arizona Republic as “What Google is looking for would be good for all of us.” If you noticed drool on the sidewalk lately, your local city council member or mayor probably preceded you. Many have recently contracted “gaga over Google.” Initial symptoms are drooling, but if left unchecked can lead to a spontaneous giving away of city assets and subsidies. The only known antidote is to realize that Google offers a critical lesson as we consider economic development and how to improve education.
Michael Cox, chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, was in the Valley in February touting what he called the fourth wave of American progress. The initial one, agrarian, is reflected in the original 5 C’s of Arizona’s economy: cattle, citrus, cotton, copper, and climate. The second wave, industrial, occurred when manufacturing formed the base of the economy. Intel and Motorola in large part represent the merging of the industrial to the informational waves with manufacturing connected to an information economy such as the chip plants in Chandler. Google exemplifies the link from the informational to what Cox calls the imagination economy. Read the rest of this entry »