Although monetary policy has been tightened, the U.S. economy is still on a steady growth path, propelled by the expansion of its information technology industry, which is said to be far ahead of its counterparts in the European Union and Japan.

Can we predict, at least in the foreseeable future, that the industrial competitiveness of the United States, especially in IT, will remain higher than in the EU and Japan? How can we predict what the level of competition in will be among the Triad of the U.S., the EU and Japan?

In order to consider these questions, it might be useful to discuss two issues: