--- title: Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century | TIME description: Bruce Katz from the Brookings Institution explains why cities shape the global economy - and what the U.S. can do to keep up canonical: https://time.com/video/PACsac8Y/ og:title: Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century og:description: Bruce Katz from the Brookings Institution explains why cities shape the global economy - and what the U.S. can do to keep up og:url: https://time.com/video/PACsac8Y/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PACsac8Y/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century twitter:description: Bruce Katz from the Brookings Institution explains why cities shape the global economy - and what the U.S. can do to keep up twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PACsac8Y/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century [Watch (HLS stream): Why Cities are Key to American Success in the 21st Century](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PACsac8Y.m3u8) (2:41)  _Published 2010-10-21. Bruce Katz from the Brookings Institution explains why cities shape the global economy - and what the U.S. can do to keep up_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:06 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Top 5 U.S. Cities for Renting](/video/T6FlZksP/) ### Top 5 U.S. Cities for Renting [Most Walkable Cities In The U.S.](/video/lc6WdqiW/) ### Most Walkable Cities In The U.S. [Reinventing Our Universities in the 21st Century](/video/GcNopsx2/) ### Reinventing Our Universities in the 21st Century --- ## Transcript So, there is no national economy in the United States, or in China, or in Germany. National economies are just networks of metropolitan economies. The U. S. has always tended to think of itself as a network of small towns. That hasn't been true since the 1800s. We are a network of powerful metropolitan economies that act on the global stage. And unless we invest in them, deliberately and purposefully, to leverage up their assets, we can't compete globally at the scale we need to. We can go to China today, and I can guarantee you that the national leaders in China understand that their economic prosperity is completely dependent on the success of their metropolitan areas. For metropolitan areas to succeed, they need to know who they are in the global market. They need to know what makes them distinctive. What do you export? Who do you trade with? Metros don't need to copy someone else or be like someone else. They need to understand who they are, understand what makes them special, and build from those distinctive assets. If we wanna compete in this century, we have to build an economy that is driven by exports, powered by little carbon, and fueled by innovation. And not just ideas, but production and deployment of what we invent. That will be disproportionally delivered, finance produced in our metropolitan areas. For the past 25 years, what the United States has done is convinced itself that if we just had a successful housing sector, and if we had a consumption economy, somehow, that would be sufficient to drive us forward. We are over- subsidizing housing and real estate in this country. What we need to do is to convince the American public that investment really makes sense if you want to build an economy for the 21st century. One of the most embarrassing things as an American is to travel abroad and go to their new airports, and go to their new rail facilities, and compare them back to what we have here. We have a lot of deferred investment. We have to invest smartly to grow. 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