In this incisive critical analysis of today's free-market capitalism, Edward Luttwak shows how it is vastly different from the controlled capitalism that flourished so successfully from 1945 to the 1980s. Turbo-capitalism is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by concerns for employees or investment restrictions, and unhindered by taxation. It promises a dynamic, expanding economy and new wealth.

In this incisive critical analysis of today's free-market capitalism, Edward Luttwak shows how it is vastly different from the controlled capitalism that flourished so successfully from 1945 to the 1980s. Turbo-capitalism is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by concerns for employees or investment restrictions, and unhindered by taxation. It promises a dynamic, expanding economy and new wealth.

The winners--the architects and acrobats of techno-organizational change--become much richer; the losers, the majority, become relatively or absolutely poorer and are forced by downsizing to take the traditional jobs of the underclass, more and more of whom end up in prison. Edward Luttwak challenges the conventional wisdom that jobs lost in old industries will be replaced by jobs in new ones.If General Motors fires you, Microsoft will not hire you; instead you'll be working in 'services,'often poorly paid.

Led by the United States, closely followed by Britain, turbo-capitalism is spreading fast throughout Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world (only in France and Japan is there any resistance) without the two great forces that check its enormous power in the United States: a powerful legal system and the stringent rules of American calvinism. Acknowledging the great efficiency of turbo-capitalism, Luttwak provides no solutions but describes in powerful detail the major societal upheavals and inequities it causes and the broad dissatisfaction and anxiety that may result. He suggests this is a high price to pay for this great dilemma of our times.

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. WINNERS AND LOSERS 1

 Turbo-capitalism conquers the world 4

 Two cheers for nasty lawyers 7

 Two more cheers for greedy lawyers 12

 Why American winners have no fun 17

 Why American losers accept their fate 20

 The perils of incomplete imitation 25

2. WHAT IS TURBO-CAPITALISM? 27

 Controlled capitalism 31

 The retreat of the state 36

 From tradition to contracts 40

 The victory of the computer 44

 Adaptation ... and frustration 46

 Money and love 50

3. GLORIES AND DOWNFALLS OF THE

 GLOBAL ECONOMY 54

 Booming sales, insecure jobs 57

 Out-sourcing - all the way to China 62

 Betting the company 64

 The new prohibitionism 68

 Intolerant justice, unjust tolerance 71

4. THE MICROSOFT MIRAGE 76

 Titans new and old 77

 Much capital, few jobs 81

 The return of the servants 85

5. THE RETURN OF POVERTY 91

 Underclass myths 94

 Why wages fall 95

 The rational criminal 99

6. THE ERA OF UNEMPLOYMENT 102

 The world demand/technology cycle 102

 Growth without jobs 109

 How to eliminate unemployment in five easy steps: a French parable 111

 Japan: full employment as the national goal 116

7. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF

 GEO-ECONOMICS 127

 Warfare by other means: geo-economics 128

 A new role for elite bureaucrats 133

 Is geo-economics new? 138

 A world of rival trading blocs? 143

8. THE INDUSTRIAL POLICY DEBATE 152

 The bureaucratic trap 155

 Having a policy without knowing it 159

9. TURBO-CAPITALISM COMES TO RUSSIA 162

 A gangster economy? 164

 Beneficial crimes 167

 Will Russia ever prosper? 173

 Globafization and the information deficit 178

10. FREE TRADE AS IDEOLOGY 181

 Protectionism as sin 184

11. MONEY AS RELIGION 187

 The age of the central bankers 191

 The march to the euro 196

 The euro: a super-hard currency? 199

12. SHOPPING AS THERAPY 204

 A cure for solitude 207

 Emotional fast food 208

 Shopping and the trade balance 211

13. THE GREAT DILEMMA 215

 Dynamism and insecurity 219

 The destruction of authenticity 224

 Growth for ever 231

 The great dilemma 236

Appendix THE GLOBAL ADVANCE OF TURBO-CAPITALISM 238

 Tables for selected countries: 1985 and 1998 247

 Definitions and sources for Appendix tables 278

Index 280