The scientists and engineers who went to America might not all have founded technology companies, but through their work at private research labs, government research institutions, universities and startups, laid the foundations for America's technological prowess.

What seems to have happened is that American corporate executives are now more focused on financial engineering, which is essentially the extraction of capital from their enterprises and from the public, than they are at selling improved goods and services.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- No one knows where good ideas come from. In some cases, the answer may simply be to throw a bunch of brains together in a room...

To get our economy back on track, we need to stop dreaming that innovation is purely a self-financing private-sector game and start paying for the innovation we need. Either that, or we're not going to get the economy we want.

Americans like to think there is something about their culture that's especially conducive to innovation--the open geography and frontier spirit; a fl...