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North Louisiana's New Economic Engine Ed Morison Economic Policy
North Louisiana's New Economic Engine Ed Morison Economic Policy
Ed Morison
Economic Policy Advisor
Purdue Center for Regional Development
February, 2009
We have identified the five key networks that regional economies need
to prosper. We have developed new disciplines of strategic doing to re-
place the slower, more expensive, and increasingly ineffective prac-
tices of strategic planning. (In complex systems like a regional eco-
nomy, strategy becomes a matter of following a handful of simple
rules. Strategic doing is a simple, but not easy discipline of following a
set of simple rules.)
During the meeting, I learned of the drastic budget cuts in higher edu-
cation now under consideration by the state legislature. These cuts, if
enacted, will drive North Louisiana’s economy toward Third World
status. This prediction is not hyperbole. International comparisons
already demonstrate that the US economy is slipping from the top rank
in education and innovation. Global competition is gaining on regions
like North Louisiana… fast.
Here’s a modest three part proposal: