USA is in pain. Serious pain. But after spending all of July travelling around this country visiting places as different as Miami, Sun Valley Idaho, San Francisco, Kona Hawaii, New York City and Southampton in Long Island I think that USA is implementing the necessary changes to get out of the slump. Living in Europe I just don´t think the same can be said about the Old Continent. I don´t think USA will recover sooner because it is implementing a flawless plan while Europe is not. I believe to the contrary that USA will recover sooner because what I saw in the middle of the deep real estate crisis of Miami, in the painful cuts in the tech companies of Silicon Valley, in the restructuring of the mortgage and hedge fund industry in New York, in the reinvention of tourism in Hawaii is that what gets Americans out of whatever mess they get in, is their trial and error mentality. In the middle of the crisis I saw innovation everywhere while in Europe I see paralysis, unwillingness to change, unwillingness to try, unreasonable fear to fail. And without constant experimentation there is no way out. It´s as simple as that.
Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars
No Comments
fernando Diez on July 31, 2009 ·
I completely agree with you Martin… not even progressive and international London (where I’m based) is showing a strong willingness to change! What in your opinion (as a person living in Europe) are the best options for us to see the back of this crisis?
Abby Feldman on July 31, 2009 ·
It’s nice to know our efforts aren’t going unnoticed:) I only have NYC to reference, but you can see people trying to bounce back in some very interesting and creative ways. Not the least of which- street vendors of anything you could ever want, a return to small, neighborhood restaurants, bars, stores, etc. Europe is wonderful in many respects, but you get a lot more done in a city that never sleeps. Let me know next time you are in town!
Ramiro Ferrer on July 31, 2009 ·
USA is trying harder and smarter because their lives depend on that. With no goverment to pay your bills, you’d better do something smart, and do it now. On the other hand, you have Europe, with too much socialism ruling the economy, trying to protect the people by means of hurting the industries. They just don’t want to work a bit harder to get out of the hole; the union regulations don’t approve any extra work, period. In Paris, for instance, you will find a real challenge if you want to buy something -even food- after 19pm in SUMMER, when there is natural light up until 11pm. I literally use to get back home with plenty of unspent money because I just can’t buy enough during daytime. That’s the biggest Capitalism irony I’ve ever lived.
dario mirski on July 31, 2009 ·
Sabias palabras Don Laguna, decian en el campo
Tenes tanta razon, Martin, como hace 18 anios en tu casa/loft en NY me dijiste lo mismo mientras preparabas shrimp con pasta (buen cocinero eras)
Saludos desde NJ (ahora un yankee mas, a mucha honra)
Dario
Yolanda Nunez on August 1, 2009 ·
Totally agree, Europe is stagnant as if waiting for something to happen and things don’t happen by not taking action.
Jose Figueredo on August 3, 2009 ·
In the worst of times, innovation has always found a way to get the country back on its feet.
humpity on August 6, 2009 ·
erm, but wasn’t the root of the trouble in the US ?
I thought that the rest of the world depended on the US economic health, as it seems to import quite a bit from the rest of the world.
I really can’t buy into this global-economy philosophy that creates global catatrophies. Surely the world economy would be more robust if countries were a little more independant ?
Silvia on August 9, 2009 ·
Hola, y felicidades!
Muy breve: vivo en Lanzarote, Canarias hace 9 años. Cuando leí “reinvention of tourism” pensé cuánto podríamos aprender de Hawaii y así “despertar” un poco a la isla…Se necesita! Es un momento crucial, histórico, este es un lugar donde hay tanto para hacer… y los políticos y empresarios, en otro planeta.
Gracias por tus comentarios.
RamonD on August 17, 2009 ·
The mindset of the American people is more adaptable than the European to change and innovation. In America they have the “American dream” which we don’t have in Europe; where to climb up the ladder and be successful is in theory more difficult.
In spite of the above, Europe has narrowed significantly the economic gap with America in the last twenty years instead of had increased. In fact, countries as Spain are not longer that apart from the USA.
Therefore America may appear more adaptable on paper. Reality says Europe has done overall better in the last years ….
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Marta on July 31, 2009 ·
Yep, I totally agree., What is killing us here is the fact that we are too proud or too scared or too old to do anything new that works.