The Economist: America’s greatness depends on quality information

This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of ColoradoBiz under the headline: Greatness requires good information

Before Julius Caesar defeated the Roman Republic and became emperor, he paused at the Rubicon River in northern Italy. The animosity between him and the ruling Roman Senate left him with little choice. When combined with his ambition and prior military prowess from conquering the Gaul regions north and west of Italy, which the Senate had supported, the future must have been obvious. Regardless, he paused and reviewed the intelligence he had gathered. With quality information at his disposal, Caesar assessed the risk of failure and, after doing so, chose to break Roman law and “Cross the Rubicon” with his loyal army.

Ambition is one thing, but without quality, accurate information, consistently achieving goals can only occur by riding favorable waves of momentum or by setting goals too low. Many entrepreneurs and other leaders refer to the momentum as “being in the right place at the right time,” but in reality, it is an acute awareness of situational information driven by intelligence or data gathering that presents itself in a timely fashion.

Great nations and companies benefit from economic momentum and a steady flow of good information about competitors, current and forecasted conditions and customers or citizens. Processes and institutions ensure the flow of information and embed it into core knowledge, which then transcends into group norms and cultural institutions that can sustain greatness. From time to time, the knowledge base must adapt rapidly to radically new conditions identified by information, but that is the exception. In most cases, our knowledge base evolves.

Strategic manufacturing and reliable information systems support America’s safety from foes, but what makes America great is our knowledge embedded in our institutions. Post-secondary education and R&D that encourage learning and adaptation are where we have sustained greatness, not from recapturing lost manufacturing. It is through our colleges, universities, and research institutes that America not only advances knowledge but also attracts the best and brightest from around the world. It is through our acceptance of diverse perspectives and protection of personal freedoms that the best of the best choose to stay and become part of Team America.

Basic research requires public funding from either governments, public donations or industry consortia. Once economic profits are achieved within a reasonable timeframe, development of the research moves into the private sector, where the market so efficiently allocates resources through investment. Efficient market allocation of limited resources also requires reliable and trustworthy information so investors, consumers, employees, regulators and everyone else have more equal access and can make effective decisions to move forward with their agendas on a day-to-day basis.

If only one group has good information, known as asymmetrical information, they can gain an advantage over the rest of us. This is why insider trading is prohibited and why CPAs must adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) when preparing and evaluating company financial statements. It is also why we entrust the compilation of economic data to non-partisan, transparent government agencies and give legitimacy to the press as the fourth estate to investigate and expose possible flaws and corruption of our system.

Unfortunately, just as society has reached a pinnacle never experienced before in the processing and storage of data and information, we have entered an era of fake news and proliferation of fractionalized information. Creating and distributing false information and unsubstantiated rumors is not new. But what is new and portends to create a fifth estate is social media. The digital age creates instantaneous access to the creation, dissemination and consumption of information, regardless of its accuracy. This alone threatens to devalue information and hinder the evolution of human knowledge as trust erodes.

Is the information we access fake or real? Dividing the loyalties of opponents and causing internal strife without active fighting should be the first line of attack, according to Chinese warrior philosopher Sun Tzu in his 2,000-year-old Art of War. Why take active military action with weapons if the enemy can be dismembered with the rumor and innuendo of information?

As an open society ruled by the ballot box in this new age of social media, our greatest vulnerability is the proliferation of divisive information. Given this reality, authoritarian regimes have the upper hand. There is no need for Russia or China to engage the United States through direct military confrontation. All they need to do is repeatedly plant seeds of division to sprout within our nation’s diversity.

Unfortunately, defending against authoritarianism requires monitoring social media and other information flows to protect against adversarial intrusion. Ensuring the quality and trustworthiness of information is our most demanding national challenge. We cannot maintain greatness without it.