“Influence of American Economic Policies”

If Drucker did not invent the Information Age, then the Information Age was invented for him. This is one of those interludes that is difficult for me to assess the validity of the argument. It is an article he wrote in 1941 when he was a new professor at Sarah Lawrence.

Superficially, the piece seems like a love letter to his new country. He is arguing against a claim (unreferenced in the piece) that the US adopted a global economic policy that destroyed Europe in the 1920s. Instead, he argues, the country did the best it could for the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

The most interesting part is at the end, the suggestion that Drucker is going to be at the center of information age. After a little digression on the changed nature of the global trade (from complementary to competitive) he asks question that points to the future. It ”seems to me that our approach to the international economic organization of tomorrow cannot start from the question of trade in goods, but must first answer two questions: How can the international movement of man power and how can the international movement of capital and ideas be organized?”

The moment of labor and goods seems to be obvious issues. When did economics become interested in the movement of ideas?