Volume 40, Number 21 · December 16, 1993
Blame the Foreigner
By Robert M. Solow
The Endangered American Dream: How to Stop the United States from Becoming a Third World Country and How to Win the Geo-Economic Struggle for Industrial Supremacy
by Edward N. Luttwak
Simon and Schuster, 365 pp., $24.00
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of its empire are the source of all sorts of changes in the West. To take an important example, defense-related industries have lost a good chunk of their market, with further shrinkage to come. One sober estimate suggests that a million jobs have already disappeared in defense industries between 1987 and 1992 and another 1.5 to 2 million are likely to go by 1997. Firms that have led their lives in the military-industrial complex do not find it easy to convert to post–cold war activities. This is partly because the general economic environment is far from helpful right now, but also partly because they find it hard to shed old habits of management and production that worked well in the old circumstances but do not fit the new civilian market.
Review, 3775 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |