Obama's Export Re-Org is Echoing My Book

In the Next American Economy, I proposed that the federal government should combine the Foreign and Commercial  Service within the Department of Commerce with the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank. According to my analysis, the agencies involved in promoting exports by small and medium sized companies are not well-coordinated.

Now President Obama has proposed doing exactly that. He would go one step further and throw in the U.S. Trade Representative's office, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and an agency I've never heard of called the Trade and Development Agency.

This is very smart and I hope he is able to push it through Congress. I heard a couple of other echoes in his comments. One is that he is proposing that the government organize itself for the economy of the 21st century, not the 20th. And he apparently used the word "ecosystem"' to describe how government agencies work together to create the support structure for exporters. I'm pleased to think The Next American Economy may have played a role in Obama's proposals.