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Book Description

From one of America's shrewdest economic trend-spotters, a wake-up call that prosperity is about to shift from the West to the East, and what can be done before it's too late By the beginning of this century it was already commonplace to speak of the US as a "hyperpower," to talk of its military, political, and economic clout as unprecedented in world history, and to assume that American dominance would continue at least throughout our lifetimes. It is conventional wisdom that America will have no serious rivals for at least a generation. But the American position is far more fragile and ephemeral than much of the world believes. In this eye-opening new book, Prestowitz reveals the powerful yet barely visible trends that are converging with the potential to turn the world upside down by ending the six-hundred-year run of Western domination of the world. These trends include the end of America's position as the world's premier place for invention and technological innovation; the sudden entrance of 2.5 billion people in India and China into the world's skilled job market; the role of the World Wide Web in permitting many formerly localized jobs to be done anywhere in the world; and How the West Was Lost is a clear-eyed and profoundly unsettling look at America's and the world's economic future, from an author with a history of predicting the important trends long before they become apparent to others.

From Publishers Weekly

Ex-Reagan administration trade official Prestowitz follows up his critique of U.S. unilateralist foreign policy in Rogue Nation with this perceptive diagnosis of the nation's economic decline under globalization. While China and India focus on trade and industrial policies and turn out competent workers who put in long hours at a fraction of American wages, the U.S., Preston argues, struggles with crushing trade and budget deficits, a zero savings rate, failing schools, dwindling investments in scientific training and research, a collapsing dollar and a debt-dependent economy that will face an "economic 9/11" once foreign creditors bail out. The argument echoes Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat (Forecasts, Apr. 4), but Prestowitz's analysis is more thoughtful than Friedman's pro-globalization cheerleading. He criticizes, from firsthand experience, Washington's cavalier embrace of free trade and aversion to industrial policy ("they'll sell us semi-conductors and we'll sell them poetry," notes one Reagan administration economist) and argues cogently that the research and development apparatus and high-tech entrepreneurship that is supposed to save America's economy is likely instead to follow the manufacturing base offshore. It's a lucid and sobering forecast.

From Booklist

Prestowitz, economic trend-spotter, reports, "Over the past two decades . . . China, India and the former Soviet Union all decided to leave their respective socialist workers paradise and drive their 3 billion citizens along the once despised capitalist road." These new capitalists symbolize the threats to end 600 years of Western economic domination as America's lead role in invention and technological innovation lessens and the Internet allows jobs to be performed anywhere. The author foresees the possibility of an "economic 9/11," which won't kill but will cause great hardship. To prevent what he sees as an accident waiting to happen, Prestowitz offers a wide range of solutions relating to the dollar's role in today's global marketplace, addressing the reality that Americans consume too much and Asians save too much, and facing energy challenges in the U.S and problems confronting our educational system. The author offers valuable insight into these important topics currently being debated in government and corporate circles.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Mary Whaley

Book Dimension

length: (cm)23.5 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)15.6