By inno­va­tion pol­i­cy what we’re real­ly talk­ing about is fed­er­al R&D pro­grams. So despite the American econ­o­my’s rep­u­ta­tion for being this quin­tes­sen­tial free mar­ket sys­tem, much of the inno­va­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment in the American econ­o­my can be linked to direct gov­ern­ment intervention.