Category Archives: American decline

Chalmers Johnson: The passing of a true scholar

In a field known for fractiousness, Chalmers Johnson spoke with unique authority. Today we received the sad news that Chalmers Johnson, America’s greatest Japan scholar, has passed on. Although late in life he achieved considerable fame for his critique of … Continue reading

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Evening in America

I have been reading two new books on trade (this review was first published in the December 2010 issue of  the American Conservative). The Betrayal of American Prosperity: Free Market Delusions, America’s Decline, and How We Must Compete in the … Continue reading

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Germany: The big engine that could

When the global economic crisis began in 2008, many commentators predicted Germany would be among the worst hit. As I show in this article — first published in the American Prospect — Germany has in reality excelled not only in … Continue reading

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I told you so (cont’d)

In 1999 I wrote a book that foreshadowed the collapse of America’s New Economy stock  boom. I went on to publish a paperback version with a new introduction — an introduction whose prescience has also stood the test of time. … Continue reading

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Finance: A cuckoo in the economy’s nest

Much of my September 1999 book In Praise of Hard Industries was quickly vindicated when America’s New Economy boom collapsed in 2000. But until recently my baleful analysis of the growth in financial services — “the economics of the cancer … Continue reading

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Boeing, Boeing,….Gone: An article revisited

In a cover story in the American Conservative in January 2005, I documented the remarkable degree to which East Asian governments have been persuading the Boeing corporation to transfer proprietary American aerospace technology. Soon afterwards Unsustainable.org crashed and it was … Continue reading

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A heated banker and a hurt professor

Now that the American economy has been revealed to everyone (not just to readers of my books) as a house of cards, I thought it might be safe to suggest that things in 1990s Japan weren’t all that bad. Two … Continue reading

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Finance is too important to be left to Wall Street’s self-interest

Getting the American economy back on solid ground will require new financial regulations. Goldman Sachs alums aren’t the people for the job. [As published in the American Conservative on October 20, 2008.] As bewildered Americans survey the wreckage of their … Continue reading

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The Clark-Fingleton discussion

Below, set out in chronological order, is a series of three exchanges between  Professor Gregory Clark and me concerning, among other things, the problems for foreign correspondents in reporting the truth from Japan. Clark, a Japan-based educator and columnist for … Continue reading

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Japan then, America now: A misleading comparison

America’s economic crisis today is not like Japan’s in the 1990s. It is far worse. (This article was first published in the Number 1 Shimbun, the magazine of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.) American commentators have been rushing to … Continue reading

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