BKNation: Build Brooklyn – A Global Strategy (8 July 2014)

Over the last two years, the United States has re-asserted its role as unparalleled economic leader in world affairs.  With over $125 trillion dollars in national assets, it remains decades ahead of every other industrialized nation on Earth.  Japan, China, and Germany seek to duplicate the conditions that make us the most dynamic economy, but lack the most crucial element to sustainable growth – expansive human capital.  As the most vulnerable and marginal populations in the U.S. become more competitive in the global marketplace in terms of education and entrepreneurship, it will create more equity worldwide, while expanding the global asset gap.

Central to this transformation are the economic connections between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  Nationalist perceptions of territorial boundaries between the three countries will only slow the dramatic increases in quality of life for all people.  In 1900, the U.S. economy held assets worth approximately $800 billion (adjusted to 2010 dollars) – less than 1% of its value in 2012.  By contrast, Canada was only worth approximately $152 billion by the same measure.  Mexico lagged significantly behind both nations at just above $95 billion in national assets.  The walls between the nations’ respective economies enabled significant industrial growth for the U.S., but forced stagnation on its two neighbors.

Over the last generation, there has been a dramatic reversal of these longstanding barriers.  As a result, the U.S. economy has grown faster, while completely transforming the economic conditions in Mexico and Canada.  In 2010, Mexico had grown into a $6 trillion nation, while Canada exploded as an $11 trillion powerhouse.  What does this mean? While both still trail the United States, the increased connections across the borders have accelerated growth in ways that have made the entire region the best and most stable economy in the world.  Investors see opportunities in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal that they could only find in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston a century ago.  Mexico remains one of the greatest bargains for new enterprises in the world, especially for those looking to consolidate markets in the Caribbean and South America.

In Brooklyn, the intersection of global finance and dynamic, human capital meet to provide unique opportunities to leverage the transformation of this continental economic shift.  With as little as $6000, new entrepreneurs can manage cost and risk in Mexico, while leveraging investments through Canada, and marketing a range of products in the United States.  Take your next project global.  It will change everything in your life.

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Dr. Walter Greason is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Center for Metropolitan Growth (www.icmetrogrowth.com) and the author of Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey.  His work is available on LinkedIn, Twitter (@worldprofessor1/@icmgrowth), Facebook, and by email (wgreason@monmouth.edu).