Following almost a half decade during which Massachusetts lagged the nation in recovery from the recession of 2001, the Bay State’s economy began to strengthen in the second half of 2005, and by the third quarter of 2006, the rate of growth of the Massachusetts economy exceeded that of the nation.

• Between 2004 and the end of 2006, Massachusetts added 57,728 jobs, and Boston added 15,727. _ Tourism rebounded, with visitors to Greater Boston increasing by 19% since 2001 overall and by 8% from 2004 to 2005. From 2004 to the 3rd quarter of 2006, jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector grew 5% in Boston and 11% in Massachusetts.
• State tax revenues increased by 7.1% in FY2005, and 8.2% FY2006.
• Vacant lab space dropped by almost 12% in the second two quarters of 2006 in Greater Boston, and particularly in Cambridge, the region’s lab and research leader. Cambridge’s vacancy rate fell to below 10% overall and in Kendall Square, lab vacancy rates fell to 6.3% from 17% in early 2006.
• Massachusetts’ exports set a record of almost $18 billion in the first three quarters of 2006, 9% higher than the same period in 2005, which had also set a record, according to the Boston Globe.
• Massachusetts’ inventors erased a two-year decline in the number of patents, with a 29% increase—4,011—in new patents filed in 2006.
• Cargo volumes in the Port of Boston the first half of 2005 were 11% higher than the record set in 2004 record—with 91,000 standard containers moving through Boston in the first half of 2005.
• Massachusetts led the nation in venture capital investment in life sciences companies, particularly for medical device companies, in the first nine moths of 2006. These investments totaled $507 million, a 55% increase over the $327 million invested in the comparable nine months a year before.
• The Commonwealth Housing Task Force forged and helped to pass consensus housing legislation to encourage smart growth development in city and town centers and near transit, resulting in passage of new 40R and 40S zoning overlay districts by 12 cities and towns, with 30 more under consideration.
• The Bay State successfully wooed a major firm to Fort Devens through the collaborative efforts of its Business Resources Team—a one-stop shop for business location, expansion and permitting—in partnership with the University of Massachusetts and MassDevelopment.
• UMass Lowell received a $35 million investment in its nanotech research center to serve the region’s 175 nanotech firms.

TRIM TAB Buckminster (‘Bucky’) Fuller, the renowned 20th century inventor and futurist with deep roots in New England (his great aunt was the author and early feminist Margaret Fuller), is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery. His tombstone reads simply: “Call me Trim Tab.” A trim tab is a small device on a ship’s main rudder that must be turned before engaging the large rudder to change course safely. Fuller saw trim tabs as a symbol for the small but strategic acts that change the course of world events. Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have acted as trim tabs to the world from the moment of their founding in 1630. Greater Boston’s outsized influence on world events is incontrovertible. Today, with the limits of fossil-fueled industrialization becoming apparent just as global population accelerates, Greater Boston is one of the few places with the capacity to shift direction swiftly enough to model changes that must occur to avert the worst effects of global warming. With its innovative capacity, compact size, racial/ethnic and linguistic diversity, and dense networks of relationship, it has what it takes to chart the transition from fossil-fuel-dependency to a sustainable regional economy on a scale that would be akin to ‘turning an ocean liner.’ A land-based version of this concept is found in the revelation of Archimedes, the greatest scientist and mathematician of antiquity, who said: “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I can move the world.” Greater Boston is an excellent place to stand to achieve the necessary understanding, collaboration, efficiency and innovation to jumpstart America’s transition to a carbon-free economy. Experts tell us that we have between 5 and 10 years in which to act. If Greater Boston can fulfill its potential for collaboration, efficiency, and innovation and model a rapid transition to sustainable growth, it will become a world-class center and magnet for talent—growing and attracting the scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, skilled workers, architects, artists, venture capitalists, and engaged residents necessary to function as a constructive trim tab in this period of global transformation—this time like no other.