> Two juicy little items for anyone who takes an unholy delight in watching
> what's left of the Pax Americana shred itself into oblivion:
>
> (1) Gardner's 2000 machine-tool survey, over at
> <http://www.gardnerweb.com/consump/produce.html>, reveals that the EU was
> responsible for 54% of world machine-tool output in 1999, East Asia
> weighed in at 32.5%, while the US produced only 12.6% (machine-tools are
> the DNA of any industrial base, i.e. machines which produce other
> machines)
With idee fixe (sp?) Dennis simply ignores the obvious retort: From CAD to CAM to the software and microprocessors embedded in the machines themselves, the "DNA" is in information technology. According to Galbraith's review, the Fingleton book In Praise of Hard Industries is supposed to be a counter-retort to this kind of mind over materialism triumphalism first brought to life by stock picker of the millenium George Gilder. Will have to check into Fingleton's book which just made it to the library here.
As Christian noted, as long as you include sales from foreign affiliates, US corps haven't lost their market share of the high tech market, and alone have consisently run a tech surplus according to Doremus, et al. The Myth of the Global Corporation.
So I wouldn't count the huge US deficit in metal cutting and metal forming technology as proof of the end of US industrial leadership any more than I count the deficit in toys, shoes and coffee as the beginning of the end; if anything, the US seems to have left Japan and Germany behind to compete it out with each other in a less profitable business line. There has been plenty of Brenner-like exit, perhaps accelerated by Mundell's good recession of the early 1990s.
Haven't read the chapter on machine tools in Mowery and Nelson, though. Will have to read about what threats *and opportunities* Taiwan's surge of microprocessors will mean for US firms from to Sun and Cisco which will doubtless make profitable use of cheaper inputs while Intel goes on to meet growing telecom demands with SOC (system on a chip).
Again, I think the question is socialisation of the tech monopolies, not the US' putative relative tech stagnation.
But I do like your characterization of the keiretsu as a mutation in production relations that must be studied in their own right, not simply dismissed. The Michael Callon book recommended by Christian seems important. And what about Shigeto Tsuru?
Yours, Rakesh