Financial Times Review of Launchpad Republic
The book argues that the US has developed a uniquely effective form of capitalism thanks to a dynamic balance between economic freedom and selective regulation, which encourages competition and the emergence of new companies and technologies without losing sight of the consumer interest.
“A solid account of the way the Founding Fathers consciously shaped the young republic’s laws for the needs of business…a succinct defense of American capitalism.”
The book argues that the US has developed a uniquely effective form of capitalism thanks to a dynamic balance between economic freedom and selective regulation, which encourages competition and the emergence of new companies and technologies without losing sight of the consumer interest.
The rules provide enough space for upstarts to set up and for big corporations to conquer global markets. Regulations safeguard legitimate business interests — such as intellectual property — without over-protecting incumbents, say the authors. And all this is only possible because of America’s vibrant — if sometimes “messy and difficult” — democracy.
Launchpad Republic: A Book Review By Bob Morris
How “a dynamic entrepreneurial economy” has balanced ”the right to compete with property rights.”
How “a dynamic entrepreneurial economy” has balanced ” the right to compete with property rights”
Consider the fact that most (if not all) of the current Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. were originally a startup and most (if not all) of their founders were entrepreneurs. In this book, Howard Wolk and John Landry provide an abundance of information and insights while exploring an historical period that extends from the colonial settlements through the current day, what they characterize as a “balancing act between rewarding builders and enabling challengers, often the same people.” This force, this entrepreneurial edge, “has been at the heart of the American entrepreneurial economy. It has been our internal combustion engine of progress.”
Kirkus Review of Launchpad Republic
“A comprehensive examination of the ways in which American entrepreneurs uniquely balance stability and volatility.”
According to Wolk and Landry, the United States has distinguished itself as the greatest incubator of entrepreneurship in an age that’s defined by its ascendancy. At the heart of its exceptionalism, they say, has been its ability to sustain a delicate equilibrium between two countervailing forces: the creative disruption of bold innovation and the stability engendered by reliable protection of property rights: “The system encourages start-up ventures to enter or create markets by promising to respect the wealth that these entities create, free from government confiscation, even as the most successful of them become quite large and profitable.” This tension is the consequence of several factors, they write, including the nation’s political economy, which encourages competition, a “cultural bias” toward individual rights and liberty, decentralized government, and a constitutional system that, they assert, discourages monopolistic power and cronyism. Wolk and Landry sketch a remarkably thorough history of the nation to illustrate its commercial development—one that charts its course from its creation, due to revolutionary dissent, to the present day. Also, they thoughtfully reflect on the challenges to American entrepreneurial success today, which they aver has reached an “inflection point” in which concerns over inequality may cause a revision of the principles that they believe have made it so successful.