About the Interview
Did you know that around 1920 Cleveland, Ohio, had a technological cutting edge not unlike Silicon Valley today? Probably you didn't, because Cleveland lost its edge during the Great Depression, and its innovation networks were never heard of again. Margaret Levenstein tells the story how, in the late 1920s, local investors who used to fund local inventors started speculating in New York instead, and the innovation networks broke down. This is not a story only about Cleveland, Ohio. This is painstaking research yielding a unique relational database to answer questions about the long-term costs of macroeconomic instability - this is new economic thinking.
About Margaret Levenstein
Margaret Levenstein is the recipient of the Herman Krooss prize in business history and received a distinguished honorable mention for the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Award for Antitrust Scholarship. She is the author of studies of the history of competition and collusion, the historical development of information systems, international competition policy, and the impact of international cartels on developing countries. Her current research falls in two areas: contemporary international competition policy and the historical relationship between regional financial and economic development. Full profile
Comments
The brief interview was fascinating. As a former economics student, having studied economic geography, I wonder about the similarities between Cleveland and Silicon Valley: civil boosters, educational institutions, physical proximity of participants, incentives or disincentives to move capital (human or financial) away such as taxes, bad weather, bad infrastructure, easily accessed financial opportunities (call money loans to banks and wall street) elsewhere. This story may be replicated by the Connecticut Valley in the late 1700-mid 1800's which saw the rise of gunsmiths, locksmiths, clock makers, furniture makers etc.
--Ken
A very remarkable contribution regarding my past experiences in Economics, Innovation and speculation.
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