"Flat on its back for years and showing few signs of life, Japan's economy was
nonetheless still in the world of the living. When we last checked, that is. Reports of
its imminent demise are now coming thick and fast. A world that had grown bored with the
'Japan isn't growing' story is suddenly paying attention to the new 'Japan will collapse
and take the rest of us with it' story." The Economist, 11/4/98. Phil Mitchinson
analyses the reasons behind.
"False Dawn", by LSE professor John Gray, takes us on a world tour of the social
devastation being left in capitalism's wake. Fascinating for its factual and statistical
data alone, it is perhaps Gray's conclusions which make the deepest impression. The free
market he argues will cause disaster, war, ethnic conflict, environmental destruction and
impoverish millions. Yet throughout a lucid and empirically remarkable work, Gray offers
no hope, proposes no reform and predicts the gloomiest of futures. In essence he argues
that the global market economy is fatally flawed and incapable of reform.
Here's a prediction. The US economy is heading for slump. By the end of this
year, that reality will start to emerge behind the smoke and mirrors of stock market
exuberance and big business bluster. Since 1945, all world slumps have started in the US.
This time will be no exception. Europe is just beginning to pick up steam. Its budding
boom will be cut off by the frost of the American recession. Japan and Asia are already
freezing. Before the millennium is reached, the world will be ice.