Clyde Prestowitz interview

A few weeks back I interviewed American economic policy wonk Clyde Prestowitz. The article that arose from the interview has just gone online:

This past fortnight I've become strangely addicted to a thrilling new page-turner. Whilst others on the train are thumbing through the latest Harry Potter instalment or some Dan Brown pulp fiction, I've been reading an epic tale of international intrigue and subterfuge, drama and debt, East and West, all from the pen (or more likely Blackberry) of Clyde Prestowitz. It's an exciting read, but as for the outcome... well, you need to wait a while. Give it another couple of decades.

Clyde Prestowitz's latest book is Three Billion New Capitalists. It comes on the back of several previous books which have contributed much to public debate both in popular and elite circles. He previously wrote Trading Places, about the trade relationship between Japan and the United States , and Rogue Nation, a book about American foreign policy.

When I am given a chance to meet Mr Prestowitz, or Clyde as he announces to me with a firm handshake, I can see instinctively why he has had the ear of so many important decision makers around the world. He exudes old fashioned American charm, with a twinkle in the eye and gives the impression that there's a highly perceptive mind at work. In another life you can imagine Prestowitz as being perhaps a salesman or a preacher, which in an odd way is what he's doing at the moment. Prestowitz can see an impending economic Armageddon (with a bit of poetic licence) and is doing his best to make the world change its ill ways.

Read the rest at Vibewire.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Who won the Keith Tishler Trophy big A?
2 September 2005 at 18:49
boy_fromOz said…
you could have added Singapore to the roll-call of East Asian state capitalism.

Prestowitz' take is a refreshing change from the defective perspective of the current crop of US policymakers. Still, he might have subtitled his book 'the shift of wealth and power BACK to the East'. Recall that until the Industrial Revolution, i.e. c.1800, Asia (and specifically China) had the lion's share of world economic product, simply by virtue of having more people. Industrialisation in the West and deindustrialisation in the East has skewed the balance over the last two centuries; what we're seeing now is at essence restoration of global equilibrium. The Asian renaissance, renaissance, not Islamic terrorism, is going to be the defining trend of the 21stC.
3 September 2005 at 23:05
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