Not long ago a couple of publishers asked about my memoirs. I told them I had no interest. Memoirs are an enormous undertaking, especially when your files haven’t been organized for the purpose. Moreover, many of mine have been discarded in moves. When you have lived as long as I have and been involved in... Read More

How Junk Economists Help The Rich Impoverish The Working Class January 28, 2014 Last week, I explained how economists and policymakers destroyed our economy for the sake of short-term corporate profits from jobs offshoring and financial deregulation. That same week Business Week published an article, “Factory Jobs Are Gone. Get Over It,� by Charles Kenny.... Read More

For authors seeking back-cover endorsements for their books, Henry Kissinger is a serious get. As he turns down virtually all authors’ requests, it is interesting to speculate on his motives in recommending Josef Joffe’s new book The Myth of America’s Decline. In Kissinger’s words, the book “effectively lays to rest the belief that America has... Read More

For years now the American press has trumpeted a supposed revival in American manufacturing. “Reshoring,� they call it. A resurgent United States seemingly is winning back much manufacturing that had previously seemed lost to China and other export-hungry East Asian nations. Stirring stuff – at least it would be if it were true. Unfortunately it... Read More

Here is a question for Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin: do you care how you will be remembered by your grandchildren? My guess is, yes, of course, you do. Certainly you seem like a decent person – the sort of public representative who sincerely aspires to build a better tomorrow. Yet the other day you... Read More

DUBLIN --CONGRESS might be at loggerheads, the unemployment rate might be too high and America's infrastructure might be crumbling -- but Americans of all political viewpoints comfort themselves with the notion that at least they lead the world in high technology and always will. It's a pleasing, convenient idea. China can't outrun the United States,... Read More

Some of us have long argued that the United Stateshas been committing economic suicide by letting its once-peerless manufacturing base fade away. To those who have investigated the facts, the case has, for decades, seemed unchallengeable. Yet it has received virtually no support from the American scholarly establishment. Now finally academe seems to be waking... Read More

Some of us have long argued that the United States has been committing economic suicide by letting its once-peerless manufacturing base fade away. To those who have investigated the facts, the case has, for decades, seemed unchallengeable. Yet it has received virtually no support from the American scholarly establishment. Now finally academe seems to be... Read More

Given recent concerns for the future of jobs at places such as Longbridge, Dagenham and now Nissan in Sunderland, it is past time Britain diagnosed the real reasons for the erosion of its manufacturing base. One is the notion that in the digital age manufacturing no longer matters. Almost everyone who influences policy-making has come... Read More

Given recent concerns for the future of jobs at places such as Longbridge, Dagenham and now Nissan in Sunderland, it is past time Britain diagnosed the real reasons for the erosion of its manufacturing base. One is the notion that in the digital age manufacturing no longer matters. Almost everyone who influences policy-making has come... Read More

YOU CAN HARDLY PICK UP A NEWSPAPER THESE DAYS WITHOUT reading yet another glowing account of the golden prospects supposedly in store for the United States in the so-called postindustrial era. If media comment is any guide, almost everyone these days is convinced that new information-based businesses and other postindustrial activities have superseded manufacturing as... Read More

For anyone who imagines that the new information-based economy is a panacea for America's economic ills, the U.S. trade figures released Sept. 21 are a startling wake-up call. Not only do they show that the United States' chronic trade problems have not gone away, but they raise fundamental questions about the wisdom of America's New... Read More