"We live in a time today where we face fierce global competition"
About this Quote
The line lands with the blunt force of a diagnosis: the contest is not local, slow, or forgiving. Capital, data, and ideas move at the speed of fiber, and firms compete across continents rather than counties. The adjective "fierce" speaks to the compression of time and the rise in stakes. Scale accrues quickly to winners in networked markets, and laggards do not get long, gentle declines; they get disrupted.
Erskine Bowles speaks from the vantage point of both business and public service. As a former White House chief of staff and co-chair of the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, he tied competitiveness to national choices about investment and discipline. He warned that a heavy debt burden crowds out the very spending that builds future strength: education, research, infrastructure, and a dynamic safety net. If a nation’s balance sheet deteriorates, so does its room to maneuver when shocks arrive, and confidence is a competitive asset all its own.
The pressure shows up on shop floors and in boardrooms. Supply chains reconfigure with a spreadsheet; talent is recruited globally; benchmarks are set by the best, not the nearest. Automation amplifies the advantage of skills and institutions. Countries that pair world-class education and research with efficient infrastructure, smart regulation, and welcoming immigration policy tend to capture the higher-value layers of production. Those that lean only on cheap inputs or protection drift toward a race to the bottom.
Yet competition is not purely a knife fight. It can be a flywheel for innovation when rules are clear and markets are open. That means engaging allies to set standards, defending fair trade, and investing at home with a long horizon. The message is urgency without panic. Win by building: better schools and labs, modern ports and grids, healthier public finances, and pathways that help workers move to opportunity. Fierce rivals focus; so should we.
Erskine Bowles speaks from the vantage point of both business and public service. As a former White House chief of staff and co-chair of the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission, he tied competitiveness to national choices about investment and discipline. He warned that a heavy debt burden crowds out the very spending that builds future strength: education, research, infrastructure, and a dynamic safety net. If a nation’s balance sheet deteriorates, so does its room to maneuver when shocks arrive, and confidence is a competitive asset all its own.
The pressure shows up on shop floors and in boardrooms. Supply chains reconfigure with a spreadsheet; talent is recruited globally; benchmarks are set by the best, not the nearest. Automation amplifies the advantage of skills and institutions. Countries that pair world-class education and research with efficient infrastructure, smart regulation, and welcoming immigration policy tend to capture the higher-value layers of production. Those that lean only on cheap inputs or protection drift toward a race to the bottom.
Yet competition is not purely a knife fight. It can be a flywheel for innovation when rules are clear and markets are open. That means engaging allies to set standards, defending fair trade, and investing at home with a long horizon. The message is urgency without panic. Win by building: better schools and labs, modern ports and grids, healthier public finances, and pathways that help workers move to opportunity. Fierce rivals focus; so should we.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
|---|
More Quotes by Erskine
Add to List
