Posted on 03/24/2008 5:32:41 PM PDT by forkinsocket
We used to be the world's most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we're laughingstocks. What happened?
The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy. Countries that outsourced their monetary policy by pegging domestic currencies to the dollar are having second thoughts. Kuwait last year detached the dinar from the dollar, and Qatar government officials last week said they were considering doing the same with their currency. International financiers are unnerved by the toxic combination of "misplaced assumptions about housing, a lack of necessary regulation and irresponsible use of debt with sophisticated financial instruments," said Ashraf Laidi, currency strategist at CMC Markets.
Dissing American financial management is an affront to national pride tantamount to standing in Rome and asking, loudly, if Italians are able to make pasta. The United States invented the concept and practice of running large, complex systems. Along with baseball and deep-frying, management is one of our great national pastimes. The world's first MBAs were awarded by pioneering yuppie factories such as the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wharton's founding in 1881 was quickly followed by the world's first time-share summer houses in the Hamptons.) Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line was the gold standard in global manufacturing for decades. Contemporary American institutions stand for excellence in managing everything from supply chains (Wal-Mart) to delivery services (Federal Express and UPS).
Americans' ability to manage complex systems has been the ultimate competitive advantage.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Gracious! Nostalgic frisson here!
I recall as a boy in the seventies reading articles like this on weekly basis.
The question is: do they piss you off or warm the cockles of your self-hating liberal heart?
We can still manage large, complex systems.
Only now the goal is to put all the money in management’s pocket, not the the stockholder’s pocket. Looked at from that point of view, we are very successful.
Maybe we need to crank out some more MBAs and lawyers.
In a word - Democatcongress. Any time the Democrats get in power, they manage to so completely trash the USA that malaise takes hold real fast.
Well, can't argue with that. I haven't seen much necessary regulation.
Might have something to do with the crap public schools we’re stuck with (thanks to the NEA)— pumping out semi-literate useful idiots now for 30 years.
Hey, ya can’t give what ya don’t got.
Inculcated by DemoLiberal socialst “feel good” policies that have ruined our education system for over 40 years now.
The US economy continues to outperform other industrialized countries. News of our demise is premature.
Try this exercise - think of as many huge US companies as you can that didn’t exist thirty years ago. Not that hard, is it?
Now do the same for Europe. Well, there’s SAP, and then what?
They have the Midas touch in reverse. Everything they touch turns to turds
Airbus, or whatever they’re calling themselves now, but they had to suck government tit for how long before they could stand on their own, and even then, there are leftists who are voting with their dollars by refusing to buy anything BUT Airbus (Jet Blue, for one).
Aren’t we teaching our young that self-esteem is more important than competence? So why be surprised?
But on the plus side, American Idol is on tomorrow night!
BTW, our Federal Reserve is not to blame. Democrats are no more to blame than Republicans, as McCain will continue selling our Nation out to the Asian communists as much as Hillary will. Thus, the current Republican campaign to elect Hillary... Obama is no better or worse, having been trained as the other liberaltarian/slaver/lawyer politicians are.
There was a time, before FDR, that currencies floated pretty freely. Currency fluctuations are what corrects economic excesses.
But as Keynesian economics took over(a newfangled way to say Bread and Circuses), govt debt and taxation built up, so that not only were we not competitive, but we were dependent on foreigners to fund that debt, meaning our currency couldn’t float to correct excess govt spending.
This isn’t the fault of our free market economy. This is the direct fault of socialist govt policies.
Eventually there will be no assembly-line employment in the United States ~ probably within a couple of decades.
Europe is history. Don’t mention Europe and competition is the same breath.
However, there are many HUGE Chinese and Indian companies that did not exist thirty years ago: Haier, Huwaei, Infosys, Wipro, Lenovo, Suntech, ICBC, Sinosteel, Chinalco. (And a lot more are coming!).
Some examples?
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