US Competitiveness and American Innovation (Business Dynamism/ Startup Rate) — 4 Part Series

American Entrepreneurship is vanishing! There have been fewer and fewer startups since the 70s! How can that be? Seems like everyone has a startup.

The American startup is dying. Twenty years ago, less than 40 percent of businesses were more than ten years old, according to Census data. Today, that number has surpassed more than half. Furthermore, the U.S. was home to 95 percent of global startup and venture-capital activity two decades ago. Today, that number has been cut in half, with most of the decline happening in the last five years

And, covid may have made it worse. Philly Fed chief executive Patrick Harker’s, who has been examining this issue, appeared on CNBC back in April and discussed the downward trend — even if only for a second— and how it now could be magnified by Covid.

I’m flabbergasted. We as Americans are known for our innovation prowess. Are we riding high on our laurels? Are we losing our ability to innovate — because we really don’t understand what makes our innovation capability unique, strong, robust?

I later was confronted with conversations about the challenges the national security sector was having. In some sub-sectors, there is only one supplier, and companies have been exiting the sector — especially manufacturing elements — for decades. The DoD was mobilizing to ensure these companies were supported and did not go out of business, since that would…