On immigration reform, this has been a slow summer for Congress. After reform passed the Senate in June, it languished in July. While Washington then went on recess, and now has shifted its focus to Syria, what has the rest of the world been up to on economic advancement?

Germany spent the summer rewriting 40% of its immigration laws, significantly easing the bureaucratic hurdles impeding talented, foreign-born engineers and professionals from contributing to the economy there. It will now be easier than ever for U.S.-educated graduate students to start new businesses . . . in Germany.

China used the summer to double down on foreign talent recruitment. Five years after announcing its "1,000 talents program" to lure future business founders from all over the world, China has launched, in recent weeks, more than a dozen national programs offering millions of dollars annually in research grants and venture capital to elite scientists and engineers.

Canada got its new startup visa program running this summer, explicitly seeking to lure talented entrepreneurs away from Silicon Valley. Our Canadian friends even erected a billboard near San Francisco while Congress was on recess, urging foreign-born innovators to consider leaving Silicon Valley and move north.

Australia—despite having an economy 14 times smaller than America's—will, as of Sept. 1, offer as many employment-based green cards as the U.S.