Famed strategy expert Michael Porter of Harvard Business School shares his view on America’s overall economic strategy on CNBC. Since the election, he says, we are off to a good start and President-elect Obama and America have gained “a lot of goodwill” internationally. However, Porter questions whether the probable stimulus package will go to efforts that will strengthen our economic competitiveness, or if it will just be used to prop up the economy in the short run. Porter believes that the stimulus is too “top heavy” and that we need to get more funds into the states’ hands, because they are the ones who know their local economies best.

According to Porter, we might be getting too hung up on infrastructure spending — historically the US has not done a very good job on gaining benefit from past infrastructure spending. He says that hard times give us an opportunity to focus on the larger strategic issues and that the stimulus package needs to be focused on improving America’s long-term agenda. Lastly, he believes that we’re in the “darkness before dawn” stage, and says that having confidence, which is very low right now, will be key to getting through this period.