American R&D crisis?

From Light Reading:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- A lack of emphasis on basic research could make it harder for the United States to climb out of the current economic crater, according to some Silicon Valley experts from the research community.

The result is that the country lacks a trove of big-deal technologies at a crucial time. "We have come off a major cycle, and we do not have the wherewithal to kick into the next cycle," said Judy Estrin, former Cisco Systems Inc. CTO and Packet Design Inc. founder.

She was one of the speakers at a panel discussion titled, "The Innovation Economy: R&D and a Crisis," put on by the Churchill Club and hosted by the Silicon Valley offices of Microsoft Corp.