Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe, and America

Another reviewer wrote that Paul Krugman, a very highly respected economist who also writes for popular audiences, had published a refutation of Thurow's thesis in Head to Head. Actually Krugman wrote several in the early nineties, during the NAFTA controversy and Clinton's first term. These are collected in the book Pop Internationalism, which is a fine book for anyone to read, as are Krugman's other books.

Of course you can read Thurow's book, and it has some interesting observations, among its flawed analysis, of business cultures in Japan and Europe; they make interesting comparisons with business culture in the USA. For this I give it one star above the minimum.

Also, it is interesting that this new updated version includes only a new forward; the text remains unchanged. Perhaps this is a little disappointing, since it would be nice to see Thurow's predictions for the future from now. But its nice to see how wrong he was about all his predictions before. His new forward says that he was wrong because America read his book and reacted.

Actually, he was just wrong. So I recommend that you read Pop Internationalism in addition to, if not instead of, Head to Head.

No mention is made of the fact that international trade is NOT a zero-sum game , and that exchange based on comparative advantage will lead to a win-win situation for both countries involved. Instead the book harps on the assumption that somehow at the end of the game there will be winners and losers. In fact, it asserts that a united Europe will be the winner among the US , Japan and Europe. That prediction does not look like being borne out anytime soon , and Japan is languishing in a decade long mild recession - even though Japan did follow a policy of preferentially promoting "strategic" sectors , similar to what the book suggests.

The book's assertion that there are some high value-added sectors that ought to be promoted have been demolished by more careful analyses - notably by Paul Krugman's articles in Foreign Affairs ( March/April 1994) . These analyses show that productivity growth , rather than victory or defeat in some supposed economic Olympics , is the primary causal factor behind continued growth or stagnation.

Someone (I think Jagdish Bhagwati , but not sure) said in response to the assertion that it is better to produce semiconductor chips than potato chips ---- that you can produce sophisticated semicon chips, export them and import potato chips, lie in front of the TV all day long eating potato chips, and become a society of morons. On the other hand, you can produce potato chips , export it and import semiconductor chips, and use them to improve education. The hollowness of a lot of assertions in this Thurow book can be demolished by this silly-sounding but relevant quote.

The doctor's prescription is as follows - if you read this book , read some effective antidotes (like the Krugman articles) - otherwise you may be condemned to a view of the world that is siren-like in its appeal , but lacks even a modicum of truth.

However, I am disapointed with his conclusion. I still do not understand how he come to his conclusion that Europe will win the economic race in the future!

The central argument in this volume is that the familiar economic alignments of the twentieth century are obsolete. The author evaluates America's position in the coming world order in light of these shifting circumstances. While the United States remains one of the major economic powers, the future will be controlled by those who train and educate themselves and those who invest more money into research in order to develop concrete plans to confront the competition.

Thurow suggests that very different views of capitalism exist between the United States and Britain on the one hand, and Germany and Japan on the other. In order to ensure continued success, better education and national planning, along with increased communication between businesses, unions and the government, become central components of the game.

A revolutionary look at what America must do today to compete tomorrow in a world where economic competition will determine leadership.

Automating Business Process Re-Engineering: Using the Power of Visual Simulation Strategies to Improve Performance and Profit (2nd Edition)

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A new culture in the management of changes
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Automating Business Process Re-Engineering: Using the Power of Visual Simulation Strategies to Improve Performance and Profit (2nd Edition)
Gregory A. Hansen
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
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Binding: Paperback

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The Pathology of Tropical Food Legumes
Delmas J. Allen
Manufacturer: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
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Binding: Hardcover

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The Chang Tang, the vast, remote Tibetan steppe, is home to a unique assemblage of large mammals, including Tibetan antelope, gazelle, argali sheep, wild ass, wild yak, wolves, snow leopards, and others. Since 1985, George B. Schaller and his Chinese and Tibetan co-workers have surveyed the flora and fauna of the Chang Tang. Their research provides the first detailed look at the natural history of one of the world's least known ecosystems.

The plains ungulates are the main focus of this book—especially the Tibetan antelope, or chiru, whose migrations define this ecosystem much as those of the wildebeest define the Serengeti. Schaller's descriptions of mammal numbers and distribution, behavior, and ecology provide baseline information that may allow wildlife, grasslands, and pastoralists to continue to coexist harmoniously in this region.

This project led to the creation of the 130,000-square-mile Chang Tang Reserve by the Tibetan government in 1993, and Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe should help promote future studies as well as conservation and management efforts.

"Schaller makes significant contributions to an understanding of the origins and ecology of Tibetan wildlife that will thrill specialists. . . . Schaller's book is much more than an ecological synthesis. It is a quest for conservation, a case history by a very brave and capable man, driven by no small passion to prevent the tragedy of extinction that looms over Tibet's fauna. His book touches not only the mind but also the heart, and in the context of conservation and the future it raises questions to torture the soul. . . . Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe will long remain a unique, important source of biological, but also sociological, insights and challenges. I found it well written and difficult to put down."—Valerius Geist, Nature

"The topics in Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe are at least as diverse as the topography; they range from geology and paleoecology to descriptions of ungulates and carnivores unknown to most of the non-Chinese speaking world. Individual chapters focus on kiangs, Bactrian camels, yaks, chirus, blue sheep, and Tibetan argalis and gazelles. Not only is much of the biological information new, but subsumed within these chapters are current and past estimates of population sizes both in the Chang Tang Reserve and in protected and nonprotected areas of 'the' plateau. Insights are provided into social structure, and speculations about the evolution and adaptive bases of behavior are carefully offered. Subsequent chapters involve discussions of carnivore communities and interactions between people and wildlife, including the localized but devastating effects of poachers. . . . This book has something for all audiences. . . . [A]n exciting testimony to the past and present status of a biologically spectacular region."—Joel Berger, Conservation Biology