8 thoughts on “Andy Stern, Liberal Fascist”

  1. Yes and in the ’80’s the Japanese were the Magic Economists and we would do well to emulate them….the American way of thinking was done…outmoded…beaten.

    Well (1) Americans are not Japanese so many things they can do, we cannot and vice versa, simply because of cultural differences and (2) Looked at from this side of the ’80’s the Japanese are not the Mega-invulnerable Super Economic gurus some thought they were.

    Which isn’t to say they didn’t have good ideas – “Just In time” materials management is a good idea and, as I understand it, it was a Japanese idea.

    American methods work every time they are tried -0 but they haven’t been tried for close to 80 years.

    1. Before we dismiss the Japanese out of hand, it’s worth looking at how things failed there. They had a massive real estate bubble (just like the US and Europe had a few years ago and China has now) and they blew the recovery with excessive Keynesian spending when that bubble popped, pretty like the US is doing now.

      Fortunately, the US doesn’t have the Japanese postal savings system, a government-backed savings account through their postal service that offers a higher rate than banks can afford to offer. This has among other things led to vast market distortions in the Japanese construction sector which apparently is a favored place for both putting the postal savings money and enacting various stimulus efforts.

  2. I didn’t “dismiss the Japanese out of hand”…..

    my comments were more aimed as the people in the US who were ready to toss the American way of doing business overboard and who believed the Japanese were invulnerable.

  3. So the current economics of China seemed to have escaped Stern’s notice. Their economy is slowing down and the tide is going out.

  4. Somehow, when pieces like this are written, no one ever suggests RETURNING to the system of free-market capitalism which worked so spectacularly in turning America from an agrarian economy to the world’s economic powerhouse. No, the solution to the problem of government-induced paralysis is always … more government!

    1. Pennypincher, when I have done so, the Gilded Era was declared to have failed (despite obvious, copious evidence to the contrary) due solely to labor abuse of the time. Now, we see a former union boss admiring a country chock full of sweat shops and labor abuse among other unpleasant things. He obviously isn’t admiring China for its freedom or environmental cleanliness.

  5. During the 1930’s there were many writers saying we were being left behind by the superior economic systems of the Fascists and Nazis. What’s great about these pieces is that the Internet never forgets, and anyone who has called for us to emulate a totalitarian socialist dictatorship to boost the economy will have their article thrown in their face for the rest of their lives.

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