Big Minds, Little Ideas.

• Author: SMICK, DAVID M.
• Position: Editor's view on United States economic policy makers - Brief Article - Editorial

Imagine the date is late 1944, early 1945. Nothing is certain, but the best bet from the Best Minds is that the Allied forces will eventually succeed. World War II will wind down.

The Best Minds mention one other thing: that the United States will soon emerge as the world's dominant economic power, controlling half the world's GDP, with industrial superiority and all the optimism and dating associated with a victor.

What happens next is surprising. The Best Minds roll up their sleeves and begin a determined search. Their goal: to identify some big ideas for the future. True, the temptation is there to crow about America's superior position, but this would be accentuating the obvious, not something Best Minds need ever do. Instead, they search for the grand master stroke, the big think vision for the entire planet.

Now there is risk associated with thinking big. For instance, what if this grand scheme for a Marshall Plan becomes bottled up in the U.S. Congress, belittled as some dreamer's spendthrift boondoggle? What if those eggheads up there in Bretton-Woods, New Hampshire really don't know what they're doing? After all, a world bank, for God's sake! What about this United Nations idea? Didn't Wilson try that, and fail? Then there's that guy Truman, our commander-in-chief's latest vice presidential lackey. At some point, they say, he will offer a grand doctrine outlining a long-term "containment" policy for, of all people, the Russians. I thought they were still on our side.

Well, despite misgivings, the Best Minds move forward anyway. The reason, of course, is that the new "great game" involves not only preening about your current economic strength, but charting a course -- a global one -- far out over the horizon.

So how do...