The Weightless World

"It is economic weightlessness rather than the growth of trade or deregulation that is driving the globalization of which we hear so much these days."

"There is no shortage of policy prescriptions that hark back to a pre-weightless world, calling for higher government spending or trade barriers as a panacea. These misdiagnose the causes of unemployment."

"There is a clear pattern over time of employment shifting from the high to the low productivity parts of the economy. For now even service industries are using new technology to improve productivity."

"The absence of an emphasis on profit and productivity is precisely what will permit the third sector to create jobs."

"Flexible types of work can provide freedom from control by line managers, more free time, more variety, possibly less commuting. For highly skilled professionals, this has become known as the 'portfolio career'."

"It is only since about 1960 that government spending, mainly social security spending, has increased relative to GDP in the industrial economies, and only during the past two decades that the pace of increase has become unsustainable."

"The financial and social risks people face have changed along with the technological foundations of our economies."

"Some developing countries have opted out of the global market, but most countries around the globe are now competing for an international pool of savings."

"Weightlessness is generating both political and economic forces driving the renaissance of our visible cities. In turn, their impending burst of development is going to change the landscape of business and government."

"In a weightless world, political and economic decisions are bound to be widely dispersed. The centre, the government, does not have the answers. It probably does not know the questions either."