> Do you think it's possible to maintain that the US has improved its
> competitive position--however relatively and by whatever means--*and* that
> both the EU and Japan have better long term positions staked out?
But what's the evidence for the US rebound? Sure, Microsoft and Intel are hugely profitable. So are Canon and Nokia. EU banks are the biggest in the world, and are the biggest creditors to Latin America and even SE Asia (Japan runs a close second). Eurocapital is doing quite well in software, semiconductors, cell phones, civilian aircraft, pharmaceuticals, and pretty much any other sector you care to name, and is now broadly hegemonic in the auto industry (thanks to Renault's buyout of Nissan and Daimler's buyout of Chrysler) and the machine-tools industry. East Asia doesn't have the depth or clout of the EU just yet, but their developmental states are mighty indeed (and of course Japan is a global creditor). Multinational capitalism really is multinational, which means we've got to think and act multinationally. Tempting as it is to trash-talk Wall Street (which surely deserves it) there are what Adorno called new constellations of domination arising on the horizon, and we've got to engage these here and now.
Just a little example: what sort of advice or solidarity should we be giving to the workers and citizens of Eastern European, as they struggle with Wall Street neocolonialism and industrial Eurocolonialism? Tax foreign investors? Socialize basic industry? Recreate autarkic development strategies? What political group could achieve this? Etc. I haven't the faintest idea, myself, but we have to start asking these questions.
-- Dennis