In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the key to Future Prosperity [Hardcover]

Eamonn Fingleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 1999

Challenging conventional wisdom, Eamonn Fingleton argues that manufacturing expertise -- not the new information economy -- is crucial to jobs, exports, and growth. It is universally accepted that the future of the U.S. economy depends on its successful adaptation to a postindustrial, information-based global economy. The same conventional wisdom says that advanced economies should abandon manufacturing in favor of information-driven services such as finance, entertainment, and software. In this surprising and provocative book, the acclaimed financial journalist Eamonn Fingleton demonstrates that by every measure, including high-wage job creation, contribution to national income, and balance of trade, the manufacturing sector outperforms the "new economy." In Praise of Hard Industries argues with compelling logic that America's long-term economic success depends on its strategic advantage as a manufacturer of sophisticated equipment and producer goods.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The supertanker is the image that has come to symbolize America's economic might over the last decade--rock solid and steady. Low inflation, high productivity, and a booming stock market have combined to help create one of the most prosperous periods in American history. But Eamonn Fingleton would argue that this ship is steering the wrong course, and that lurking just below the waterline are some troublesome leaks.

Fingleton argues that American business is sacrificing its once valuable manufacturing base in favor of the new economy, or postindustrialism--an umbrella under which he includes the service, software, information, and entertainment industries, among others. While he writes that he does not seek to dismiss the merits of postindustrialism--although he calls the financial-services industry a "cuckoo in the economy's nest"--Fingleton finds fault with the new economy in three areas: the mix of jobs it produces, its slow income growth, and the fact that postindustrial activities don't export very well. At the same time, he believes that modern manufacturing has become wrongly associated with low-wage or stagnant economies--Japan, in particular, which, he argues, is not the basket case that many believe it to be. At the heart of Fingleton's argument is the idea that postindustrial activities are relatively easy to pursue compared to manufacturing, which requires much more capital and know-how but offers far more upside in the long run. His prescription for revitalizing manufacturing includes boosting savings, directing much of it into industrial investment, and instituting a trade policy designed to allow manufacturing to thrive in the United States.

While Fingleton's dour assessment of the new economy seems overdone, his basic argument about the relative worth of manufacturing is well articulated. In Praise of Hard Industries is a good contrarian read for policymakers, managers, and anyone interested in a different view of both the U.S. and Japanese economies. --Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

A former editor of Forbes and the Financial Times, Fingleton ably articulates a contrarian thesis, arguing that manufacturingAnot America's "postindustrial economy" based on services and information technologyAis best equipped to deliver high wages, low unemployment and a bedrock for future prosperity. His scathing, selective tour of the U.S. computer, financial services and entertainment industries turns up colossal waste, puny exports, mismanagement and hype. Noting that, since the dawn of the computer revolution in the early 1970s, America's rate of growth in productivity has actually fallen, Fingleton suggests that the Internet has done and will do remarkably little to benefit the U.S. economy. He joins a diverse band of critics of laissez-faire globalism, including James Fallows, Patrick Buchanan and Jerry Mander, adding his own unique slant on East-West relations and manufacturing conditions. He contends that, contrary to Western press reporting, Japan is not an economic basket case, but is instead an affluent dynamo poised to challenge the U.S. for global economic leadership (a theme he set forth in his 1995 book Blindside). Bolstered by close analysis and chock full of intriguing examples of manufacturing triumphs and untapped opportunities, Fingleton's sobering report deserves close scrutiny by CEOs, labor leaders and policy makers.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (September 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395899680
• ISBN-13: 978-0395899687
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #274,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fingleton was right at the time, still was in 2004, and is in 2011, March 14, 2002

By 

James B. Brinton "jamesbbrinton" (Framingham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the key to Future Prosperity (Hardcover)

Fingleton's book has been out for a while now (it is March 2002 as I write) and the new economy has indeed proven to be a mirage, as he forecast. Interestingly, the key review of this book was from the Industry Standard, a new economy magazine which was forced to close. Its reviewer says: "Economic success continues to flow to nations with advanced manufacturing bases. And what looks like a sustained boom for information-based economies will in the end turn out to have been a mirage." He should have told his publisher. So--Fingleton is a prophet, right on the money, yet this insightful book has been largely overlooked. Too bad, because it could have saved investors billions if taken seriously, and it still should be on the reading lists of policy makers in NYC, DC, and Silicon Valley. I can't praise this book strongly enough, or its author.
Addendum:
It is now mid-2004 and Fingleton's book is still on target. Over the past four years, additional forcing factors have weakened the US economy: Outsourcing of manufacturing and -- increasingly -- service-sector jobs (weren't those supposed to be 'our future'?); tax cuts which have led to socio-economic polarization, huge amounts of federal borrowing (mostly from abroad), and a national debt that now appears difficult or impossible to retire. Meanwhile, our trade deficits have grown as our own ability to manufacture and satisfy our domestic needs has declined, just as Fingleton said they would. See Fingleton's most recent book, Unsustainable, for major insights into this. We would do well to remember that no nation is proof against failure; none of the great ancient or modern empires survive today, and most died because of failures of insight or leadership. Unless US leaders begin to take these economic issues seriously, and do it now, this country could follow, becoming the world's largest Argentina. Fingleton's books should be mandatory reading for any voter in the 2004 presidential election, and every candidate.
Further Addendum:
Here it is, January 2011. The warnings that Fingleton laid out have been ignored--though in fairness, I don't think he could have anticipated the scale of abuse by Wall Street during the last decade. Now our economy is on its back. The middle class is an endangered species, the US manufacturing base is on life support, and economic inequality is at 19th century levels. Those who still cling to the idea of the information or service economy should compare the health of the US with Germany's, which has maintained both a powerful manufacturing base and a highly supportive social system. A social safety net is not the enemy of business, but can strengthen it. Unfortunately, the politics of these issues have overwhelmed the economics stateside, and those corporations and individuals with power are using it destructively. Ethically it begs the question of how an entity can feather its own nest at the expense of the social and political support system that makes its existence possible. This is a situation that has gone beyond poor judgment and is quickly descending into class warfare. The United States, never the smartest nation in the world, is on the skids. It can't say it wasn't warned.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fingleton is right on target, December 1, 2004

By 

Kameisama (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the key to Future Prosperity (Hardcover)

I've lived in Japan for over 5 years and worked in both the manufacturing and sales/marketing side for a technology company. I also speak and read Japanese. I know this culture - particularly the aspect that Japanese are both proud of and recognize as vital to prosperity - manufacturing, or, to include the craft trades, "thing making".

Reading "In Praise of Hard Industries" had me cheering, out loud sometimes. This guy hits it right on the head on every single aspect and effortlessly argues away the myths that Americans like to cling to as the economy falls into ruin - the viability of America's "service economy", superior American creativity, American wealth - all illusions that persist because Americans aren't educated enough or in the right way to be able to see the flimsiness of the financial channel commentators' arguments.

Were's so far out of the game in manufacturing technology - both in terms of skill and mindset - that I don't know if we can ever get back in. Throw on top of that the skills in market resesarch and product marketing and sales and the prospects look even worse. Japanese companies have honed all these razor sharp and are super competetive. And our measures would certainly be complicated by the fact that the strong penetration of Japanese companies into our country as *employers* brings them strong political influence within our own borders. It's the Trojan Horse! But whatever the measures, we have to start with an honest discussion of the facts - a look in the mirror, a wakeup call. This book, along with Fingleton's others and his website, are just that.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Praise of Eamon Fingleton!, September 27, 2002

By 

B. King (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the key to Future Prosperity (Hardcover)

Shades of Nostradamus. Despite Mr. Fingleton having published this book in 1998, it is not out of date nor is it too late to read it in 2002. The author is a prophet, and I only wish I had read the book earlier, certainly before the stock market bubble popped. Furthermore, I wish this book had been the a critical document forming American political debate for the past four years.

In summary of the thesis, the pathology of the nation's declining economy is manifest in the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector. We will be generations correcting the problem, or we will be another Argentina.

Like a skilled coroner dissecting the victim of a brutal murder, Mr. Fingleton takes apart the myth of "postindustrialism," certainly as it pertains to the consensus of economic thinking in the US. Oh Gods of Hubris, what violence have we wrought upon our once mighty American economy by following the chimera of well-packaged economic fads.

So you think steel and shipbuilding are rust-belt industries, better suited to the "third world" and without which the US is a better place? Not after you read this book. So you think we should be teaching children that their goal in life should be to grow up and be computer programmers because that is the pathway to a good job and secure future? Not so fast, pilgrims. So you think that the US does not need these so-called "commoditized" high tech manufactures like the chips and circuitry that go into the guts of even a run of the mill computer? To paraphrase a certain disgraced former President of the United States, "It all depends on what you mean by 'commoditized.'"

You will probably never understand what is happening to the US economy unless and until you read this book. I am not in the business of giving advice to the President of the United States, but I will make an exception and recommend that he read "In Praise of Hard Industries." Heck, I will send him my copy if he wishes. And then, I hope that he recommends the book to every Cabinet officer, sub-Cabinet official, Member of Congress, Federal Judge, and any one else whose decisions affect policy in this country. This book is that important.