Economic forecast through 2008... 2010... 2016

Three articles in the Sunday, January 14, 2007, Cleveland Plain Dealer really caught my attention. 1. "Power shifts, and a fast-track bill is derailed [1]"; 2. "Gloomy forecast [2]" and 3. "Lost confidence in Bush? So has he [3]"  - especially the last one, where Elizabeth Auster writes, about President Bush, that "he now seems shaken by the prospect that his vision of a free and stable Iraq may be fading along with his power to achieve much else." Because of this, despite "Gloomy forecast [2]", I expect most important aspects of the Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, US and global economy to improve dramatically over the next 2, 4 and 10 years. In fact, I can't think of an area where there won't be significant improvements. Think of the growth I expect like when an economy is freed from a dictatorship and people are allowed to be free and thrive - markets open up - that is America, now that Bush has been replaced by democracy.

We will see global transformation enabled by improvement in overall global relations, improvement in US relations with other nations, better allocation and distribution of global talent and strategic corporate relations, and rapid expansion of technological innovation world-wide, all suddenly released from the strangle-holds George Bush's international and economic policy have had on US economic growth, and global progress, for the past six years.

All the people of America live in a free and Democratic nation once more, and can get back to inventing, and creating, and innovating science and the economy. Where I see the biggest gap to be filled is encouraging talented people and companies in other parts of the world to move to America once again - a rapid reversal of immigration policy since 09/11. We need to attract and retain a growing proportion of outside talent and wealth in a growing and evolving global economy.

At the national level, we will see Democratic leadership shifting funding away from war and a few terror-related industries and toward education, technology, health-care and science. I would expect this to happen in ways respectful of global needs, open standards and best practices - more of an open source approach to solving such problems as AIDS, malaria, contaminated water, poverty and starvation.

I expect real globalization to allow society to address the high cost and inefficiency of healthcare through innovation, providing universal coverage worldwide. It is also only through such global, open standards that the world will address global warming and other environmental issues and long term energy, resource and water crises ahead. And, of course, root causes of acts of war and terror.

In the process, we will heal the wounds caused worldwide by American global policy over the past six years, and we can begin the dialog on how the world will behave in the future. The next US President will be expected to cooperate with the rest of the world leaders in dealing with the threat of nuclear war.

At the state level, the new Governor, Ted Strickland, is proving to be outspoken and showing wisdom, so far. That Strickland is pro-city and pro-technology is to the benefit of Northeast Ohio. It should also be to our benefit that Lee Fisher has connections with this area, as he is Lieutenant Governor and Ohio Development Director.

As our economy grows, in openness and scale, there is an especially compelling potential for Cleveland to surface as one of the world's great cities. The fact is Cleveland is designed to be twice its current population - it is more than half-empty. And the cost of real estate is low as a result of Cleveland being a "shrinking" industrial city. But the new economy for Northeast Ohio and leading centers of America and the world is not industrial but rather knowledge, so as we look to redevelop our economy we need to take an abundance approach. Out greatest assets are our 1,000,000 person-scale assets and infrastructure and now acres of cheap inner city land and 1,000,000s of square feet of underdeveloped and abandoned storefronts and offices and our 100,000 undervalued inner city homes and apartments - this entire city can be bought cheap. And we are on a Great Lake, so we always have fresh water, so are always lush. That may also prove a major source of wind power. We are a great 1,000,000 person city looking for 500,000 more great people!

If we recognize the global economy is growing and people will increasingly need new, better places to live, Cleveland can rebuild itself as a model city. It will happen - Cleveland will have 700,000+ people again, within 10 years, and thrive. Over the next 2 years, we really need to work through a master plan for how this transformation will occur. This should include a global planning competition, exploring what Cleveland would look like if it was a major global city again, with $ billions from around the world being spent here to build that visionary city, and then make that happen over the next 10 years.