The balance of innovation has begun to tilt eastward, as China and India start taking their own products to market. For the first time, other nations are about to produce more U.S. patents per year than the United States.

"The harsh fact is that the U.S. need for the highest quality human capital in science, mathematics and engineering is not being met," says the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century. Nor is it likely to be met soon, judging by U.S. student performance on international math and science tests. In a recent study, 15-year-olds in the USA ranked 24th out of 29 industrialized nations on practical math applications.

Perhaps what's needed is another good punch in the eye, like the one we had in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the world's first satellite. Jolted by the competition, the U.S. pushed for excellence in mathematics and science, resulting in dramatic increases in enrollments and then in the number of scientists and engineers. These workers created new generations of technology and commercial applications that led to the USA's preeminence in the global economy.