Challenging conventional wisdom, Shienbaum argues that the U.S. federal government, not the private sector, created the dynamic New Economy. Declining economic competitiveness and relative
global underperformance during the 1970s and early 1980s threatened America’s post-war global leadership position, a role Washington was loath to relinquish, especially during the Cold War.
Citing these threats to American leadership and security, government officials set out to make the U.S. economy more competitive by creating innovative technology policies combined with
policies providing strong incentives to new entrants while removing regulatory protections from more established companies. The federal government, in other words, nurtured fragile high-tech
start-ups while forcing larger companies to compete in the marketplace, in the process transforming ＂regulatory＂ capitalism into an ＂entrepreneurial＂ capitalism marked by innovation,
entrepreneurship, and competition.
