David Friedman was a New America Senior Fellow from March 2000 through March 2007. Friedman is an attorney, political scientist, economic development specialist, author, and columnist. In addition to his law degree, he holds a Ph.D. from MIT in international politics, where he won an award for the “Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics” from the American Political Science Association. As a writer, he is best known for his 1988 book on Japanese economic development, The Misunderstood Miracle. He is currently a contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times, and has published in The Washington Post, Forbes, the International Herald Tribune, and Inc. Magazine, among other outlets. His legal practice has focused primarily on issues of land management and urban development. As a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, Dr. Friedman wrote a series of articles on the promise and perils of the "new economy," paying particular attention to the balance between America’s manufacturing and technological sectors, and the deepening divide between those who are favored by the present economic climate and those who are not. He exploree the influence that new, stock-market-savvy elites exert on America’s social and economic development, and the potentially adverse consequences that may result. His focus was to identify public and private strategies for rebalancing U.S. development, and the political interests that shape markets and economic outcomes, so that a wider range of industries and individuals may benefit from our current prosperity.