I have been waiting a long time for a book like 'In Praise of Hard Industries' to appear.

Tokyo based author Eamonn Fingleton has written a shrewd analysis of the so-called 'New Economy' which ought to stimulate a good deal of much needed controversy.

Using a series of well researched case studies, Fingleton effectively debunks many of the cherished beliefs held by 'Post-industrialists' who promote the advantages of services over manufacturing. In particular, he casts a sceptical eye over the much vaunted 'renaissance' of American industry during the past decade. Unlike so many others, Fingleton goes under the surface to show just how unstable the current American economic boom really is.

This book should be on the reading list of anyone concerned about the direction not only of the North American but some European economies as well.

Shades of Nostradamus. Despite Mr. Fingleton having published this book in 1998, it is not out of date nor is it too late to read it in 2002. The author is a prophet, and I only wish I had read the book earlier, certainly before the stock market bubble popped. Furthermore, I wish this book had been the a critical document forming American political debate for the past four years.

In summary of the thesis, the pathology of the nation's declining economy is manifest in the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector. We will be generations correcting the problem, or we will be another Argentina.

Like a skilled coroner dissecting the victim of a brutal murder, Mr. Fingleton takes apart the myth of "postindustrialism," certainly as it pertains to the consensus of economic thinking in the US. Oh Gods of Hubris, what violence have we wrought upon our once mighty American economy by following the chimera of well-packaged economic fads.

So you think steel and shipbuilding are rust-belt industries, better suited to the "third world" and without which the US is a better place? Not after you read this book. So you think we should be teaching children that their goal in life should be to grow up and be computer programmers because that is the pathway to a good job and secure future? Not so fast, pilgrims. So you think that the US does not need these so-called "commoditized" high tech manufactures like the chips and circuitry that go into the guts of even a run of the mill computer? To paraphrase a certain disgraced former President of the United States, "It all depends on what you mean by 'commoditized.'"

You will probably never understand what is happening to the US economy unless and until you read this book. I am not in the business of giving advice to the President of the United States, but I will make an exception and recommend that he read "In Praise of Hard Industries." Heck, I will send him my copy if he wishes. And then, I hope that he recommends the book to every Cabinet officer, sub-Cabinet official, Member of Congress, Federal Judge, and any one else whose decisions affect policy in this country. This book is that important.

Eamonn Fingleton has written a magnificent and important book. He shows that countries committed to manufacturing, like Japan, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland, grow far faster (and have more jobs, at higher wages, and produce more exports) than countries committed to 'post-industrialism', like the USA and Britain.

Fingleton observes that post-industrialists have 'a childlike faith in the efficacy of free markets', noting, "The basic error in the laissez-faire model is that it greatly overemphasizes the interests of capital over those of labor."

He argues that we cannot rely on financial services to rebuild our economies. He points out that basing the US economy on 'information industries', as post-industrialists have recommended, would cost 25 million jobs. Post-industrial services' start-up costs are low - but so are real gains. (IBM, then Microsoft, made exceptional gains only because they monopolised setting the standards for computer operating systems.) US financial trading grew thirty times over between 1970 and 1995, while American workers' real living standards actually fell in that period. Fingleton calls finance 'a cuckoo in the economy's nest': even George Soros called on governments to regulate capital markets to 'stop the market destroying the economy'.

In Britain, we need a manufacturing renaissance. We need a national strategy for becoming self-reliant in our most important manufacturing needs. First, we have to channel savings into industrial investment and into educating more people in the most advanced skills. Second, we must retain those skills and production bases that we still have, because modern manufacturing industries need large amounts of production experience and capital. We should protect our home market, to give new industries time to grow. Third, we need to be able to produce the means of production: machine tools, production machines that make hi-tech components and electronic materials, equipment for the engineering, telecommunications, textile, chemical and power-generating industries. And fourth, we need to produce the goods that people need, particularly textiles (especially polyesters and carbon fibres), pollution control equipment, shipping (the world's fleet has more than doubled since 1970), and high quality steel.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of journalistic books appeared which purported to explain how Japan was eating our lunch. "Blindside" is typical of the genre.

These books tended to be based on simplistic anecdote-based economics. Their starting point was Japan's strong postwar economic growth (exagerrated by Japan's asset price bubble of the late 1980s). They uncritically ascribed this to Japan's unique economic institutions or "the Japan model" and then extrapolated forward.

The subtitle of the book "why Japan is still on track to overtake the U.S. by the year 2000" hints that by the time this book was published in 1995 that something was going wrong. Indeed, by 1995, it was apparent to close watchers of the Japanese economy that something was seriously amiss, putting cheerleaders like author Eamonn Fingleton on the defensive. This one was past its "sell by" date the day it was published.

The intervening years have not treated Japan or this book gently. Rather than overtaking the U.S., Japan's economic performance between 1990-2000 was the worst decanal performance exhibited by any industrial country in the postwar period.

This book provides only inadvertant insight into why things went right in Japan for an extended period of time and then began going horribly wrong beginning around 1990.

"Blindside : Why Japan Is Still on Track to Overtake theU.S. by the Year 2000" by virtue of its title alone has a lot tolive up to.

What makes this brilliant book succeed is that author Eamonn Fingleton not only sounds the warning that America is about to be eclipsed, but he convincingly explains WHY.

Fingleton persuasively argues that the Japanese economic model is not capitalism at all, but is an entirely new economic system that is much better suited to cope with the new demands of the Information Age.

In describing Japan's new economic model, Fingleton effectively demolishes the conventional wisdom that "the service economy" is the wave of the future for industrialized societies.

Indeed, it is impossible to read "Blindside" and not feel that the U.S. has made a critical mistake in allowing the Japanese to capture an ever-increasing share of critical high-tech manufacturing sectors.

Far from a dry economic study, though, "Blindside" excels as compelling reading. Fingleton delves into Japan's history in his attempts to explain why the nation's leadership behaves the way it does.

The book races along like a Michael Crichton thriller, thanks to Fingleton's vivid, colorful (but extraordinarily well-documented) prose. Perhaps the highest praise one can bestow on "Blindside" is the fact that the book has been vindicated already.

Much of what Fingleton predicts, from Japan's ever-widening trade surplus to its increasing clout on the world stage, to America's futility in "reforming" Japan's bureaucrat-driven economy have proven to be true. Indeed, at current growth rates, Japan is still on track to overtake the U.S. in three short years as the world's dominant economic power.

If that prospect worries you, read "Blindside." It'll give you insights into what Japan is doing right and what the U.S. is doing wrong and what the U.S. needs to do to counter its steady decline as a world power.

Whether we want to believe it or not, Japan's economy, not that of the U.S., is the role model for most of the fastest-growing nations on earth. As Fingleton convincingly argues, the U.S. will be no match for Japan as long as we cling to outdated and simplistic free market ideas.

Brilliant analysis of a World beating economic system
Reviewer: Patrick Walsh from Amsterdam, North Holland The Netherlands
Don't pay any attention to the detractors of this author.
He lives in Japan.
He has worked as a successful financial journalist around the world.
His correct forecasting of the Japanese economy is on record (e.g. Euromoney Magazine).
He has been widely praised (see two sites, unsustainable dot org and, fingleton dot net).
Check out the above dot org site for current articles from
this author.
You will be surprised at the articles on there that deal
with the press, who widely report a slump in Japan that
never seems to happen.
If Japan is in a slump, why such continued strong export performance in the hi-tech area?
Japan may have "crippling" debts, but you can be sure
its not foreign debt and,
therefore much less of a problem, unlike
the USA which is burdened by a debt with
a large foreign component.
Fingleton rightly points out in this book that
the Japanese economy cannot be understood
without looking at it in terms of a big picture.
Read the content on the above sites, think a little,
read this book and, his more recent work
"In Praise of Hard Industries" and, you will
be a lot farther along the road to understanding
where the World economy is going.