Building Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies and Nations - Hardcover

Thurow, Lester C

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0887309518 ISBN 13: 9780887309519

Publisher: Harper Business, 1999

Synopsis

As we stand on the brink of the new millennium, MIT economist Lester Thurow addresses the critical issue of wealth creation. The result is an essential road map for how individuals, companies, and nations can and must build wealth in a knowledge-based global economy.

There is no doubt that we are in the middle of a transition to a knowledge-based economy; breakthrough technologies in microelectronics, biotechnology, new materials, telecommunications, robotics, and computers are fundamentally changing the game of creating wealth. Thanks to the impact of these technologies, new industries (software, gene therapy) are growing explosively and existing industries (banking, retail) are being transformed beyond recognition.

Out of these transformations, a new global economy is emerging to replace existing national economies. Almost alone, the American economy seems to be enjoying a period of unprecedented growth. Is this growth sustainable? Is global integration a boon or a threat to this trend? Will the forces that sparked the Asian meltdown--a crisis that is meticulously evaluated in these pages--provoke a more persistent era of stagnation or worse? Should global integration be slowed? Can it be slowed? What lies ahead in the near future?

What skills are needed to succeed in this new economy? What new rules must apply to the creation and protection of new ideas? How are environmental problems such as global warming going to affect wealth creation? How can marketable wealth be rising at ever-faster rates while productivity growth is slowing? How can nations create a social system in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish without also creating income and wealth inequalities that threaten the system?

In the groundbreaking final chapters of Building Wealth, Professor Thurow turns his attention to the three current major economic sectors of the world: America, East Asia, and Europe. He provides a trenchant analysis of each as a significant competitor in the coming decades, and predicts the likely outcome of the complex forces that are presently shaping global society.

About this title

About the Author

Lester C. Thurow is the Lemelson Professor of Management and Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught since 1968. From 1987 through 1993 he was dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management. His previous books include the New York Times bestsellers The Zero-Sum Society and The Future of Capitalism.

From the Back Cover

As we stand on the brink of the new millennium, MIT economist Lester Thurow addresses the critical issue of wealth creation. The result is an essential road map for how individuals, companies, and nations can and must build wealth in a knowledge-based global economy.

There is no doubt that we are in the middle of a transition to a knowledge-based economy; breakthrough technologies in microelectronics, biotechnology, new materials, telecommunications, robotics, and computers are fundamentally changing the game of creating wealth. Thanks to the impact of these technologies, new industries (software, gene therapy) are growing explosively and existing industries (banking, retail) are being transformed beyond recognition.

Out of these transformations, a new global economy is emerging to replace existing national economies. Almost alone, the American economy seems to be enjoying a period of unprecedented growth. Is this growth sustainable? Is global integration a boon or a threat to this trend? Will the forces that sparked the Asian meltdown--a crisis that is meticulously evaluated in these pages--provoke a more persistent era of stagnation or worse? Should global integration be slowed? Can it be slowed? What lies ahead in the near future?

What skills are needed to succeed in this new economy? What new rules must apply to the creation and protection of new ideas? How are environmental problems such as global warming going to affect wealth creation? How can marketable wealth be rising at ever-faster rates while productivity growth is slowing? How can nations create a social system in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish without also creating income and wealth inequalities that threaten the system?

In the groundbreaking final chapters of Building Wealth, Professor Thurow turns his attention to the three current major economic sectors of the world: America, East Asia, and Europe. He provides a trenchant analysis of each as a significant competitor in the coming decades, and predicts the likely outcome of the complex forces that are presently shaping global society.

Reviews

A lesson plan for coping with the realities of the economic future. An economist at MIT and author of several previous books (The Future of Capitalism, 1996, etc.), Thurow is no stranger to the task of purveying information about economic concepts. Here, he tackles the issues that affect societies, workers, and businesses in a world where globalization is a reality, not a buzzword, and brainpower has usurped muscle power as the major component in business success. As the subtitle suggests, his conclusions are straightforwardly organized in a list of ``rules'' that summarize major points, as in Rule Seven: ``Any society that values order above all else will not be creative, but without the right degree of order, creativity disappears as if into a black hole.'' Thurows ideological bent is generally moderatesometimes he leans toward a libertarian philosophy; at other times, toward a more liberal government-as-benefactor position. While he extols chaos (i.e., disorganization and lack of central control) as necessary to promote creativity and ``tool building,'' he also states that too much disorder is not desirable. Thurow proffers history lessons, profiles of success, and morals to be drawn from such failed concepts as communism. Yet while he clearly favors capitalism, hes willing to find fault with this economic system as well, describing its ``tendency to save and invest too little,'' which he calls a ``built-in genetic disease.'' Thurow emphasizes that while economic globalization spreads, there will be no corresponding global government to control it, and he urges readers to stay ahead of future dangers, although this lecture seems mostly aimed at politicians and policy makers. Instructive and to the point, an overview of emerging economic realities, including scenarios for the US, Europe, and Japan. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The U.S. economy surged past those of Europe and Japan in the last decade in terms of the creation of jobs and market wealth. According to best-selling author and MIT economist Thurow (The Future of Capitalism, LJ 3/15/96), the U.S. economy has been successful because of its adaptability. American entrepreneurs seized upon opportunities in the new knowledge-based industries, while established U.S. companies restructured themselves to enhance profitability. Emphasizing the global nature of modern economic competition, Thurow explains that the continued creation of wealth depends upon improving social organization, creating entrepreneurial opportunities, enhancing knowledge, expanding human skills, building physical tools, and augmenting natural and environmental resources. While his subject is complex, Thurow expounds his theories on modern capitalism in clear, jargon-free language. Given his stature and popularity, this book is recommended for all but the smallest libraries.
-ALawrence Maxted, Gannon Univ., Harborcreek, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thurow, an economics professor at MIT and former head of the Sloan School of Management there, is also an author who is successful at packaging ideas and selling books. He is still probably best known for The Zero Sum Society (1980) and for his columns in Newsweek, but his most recent title was The Future of Capitalism (1996). There he used the geologic concept of tectonic plates as a metaphor to demonstrate that today's economic forces are grinding up against each other and creating convulsive change. Now his analogy is the pyramid, a symbol of durability and strength. Thurow argues that the Japanese, Europeans, Americans, and Third World nations each lack at least some of the essentials necessary to build the "wealth pyramid" in the new knowledge-based economy. Each layer of the pyramid must be in place before the next can be built. At the foundation is social organization. Then come--in order--entrepreneurial skills, breakthrough-generating knowledge, skills and tools that can be used to exploit knowledge, and natural and environmental resources. Market wealth is the apex of Thurow's pyramid. Thurow marshals a wide array of facts, arguments, and examples to illustrate and bolster his case. He also has a penchant for making provocative statements that seem to invite controversy and attention; for example, he spends as much time explaining the economic arguments for plowing snow versus spreading salt as he does substantiating his assertion that Japan's current economic woes are the equivalent of America's Great Depression. David Rouse

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0887309518
• ISBN 13: 9780887309519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320