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