Washington, DC is now the richest place in America, having taken that distinction away from Silicon Valley. Surprised? Neither am I.
As Steve Clemons reminds us, however, that doesn't mean Washington deserves the kudos.
I'm inclined to think Washington, D.C., constrains, frames, levels, directs, empowers, and topples -- all of which can be important. In contrast, the west coast of the United States -- and many corners of the country outside the Beltway -- builds, innovates, creates, launches, discovers, struggles, figures out stuff, and designs the future.
Anyone who has spent time in Silicon Valley or Seattle, Portland, San Diego, and more will quickly feel that innovators, scientists and engineers change the world far more than those of us in Washington.
Sure, though I wouldn't give Washington even as much credit as Steve does, particularly given the amount of credit Washington gives itself.
But all this is by way of a lure to keep an eye on The Atlantic Meets The Pacific conference.
Hundreds of folks are huddled together at the Scripps Oceanological Institute. The meetings can be watched live here. So far, the discussions have been so above expectations and seriously mind-stretching that I don't know how the day will keep up with what we have thus far.
Next up is Twitter co-founder Evan Williams -- who also created Blogger, which was acquired years ago by Google. Later this morning, I'll be conducting an interview with energy policy guru Daniel Yergin on themes from his new book, The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World.
This is a conference worth turning into and watching live.
