Turbo-Capitalism: Winners And Losers In The Global Economy [Hardcover]

Edward N. Luttwak (Author), Weidenfeld & Nicolson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999

In this incisive critical analysis of today's free market capitalism, Edward Luttwak shows how it is vastly different from the controlled capitalism that flourished so successfully from 1945 to the 1980s. Turbo-capitalism is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by concerns for employees or investment restrictions, and unhindered by taxation. It promises a dynamic, expanding economy and new wealth.

The winners--the architects and acrobats of techno-organizational change--become much richer; the losers, the majority, become relatively or absolutely poorer and are forced by downsizing to take the traditional jobs of the underclass, more and more of whom end up in prison. Edward Luttwak challenges the conventional wisdom that jobs lost in old industries will be replaced by jobs in new ones. If General Motors fires you, Microsoft will not hire you; instead you'll be working in 'services,' often poorly paid.

Led by the United States, closely followed by Britain, turbo-capitalism is spreading fast throughout Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world (only in France and Japan is there any resistance) without the two great forces that check its enormous power in the United States: a powerful legal system and the stringent rules of American Calvinism. Acknowledging the great efficiency of turbo-capitalism, Luttwak provides no solutions but describes in powerful detail the major societal upheavals and inequities it causes and the broad dissatisfaction and anxiety that may result. He suggests this is a high price to pay for this great dilemma of our times.

"They call it the free market, but that is shorthand for much more than the freedom to buy and sell. What they celebrate, preach, and demand is private enterprise liberated from government regulation, unchecked by effective trade unions, unfettered by sentimental concerns over the fate of employees or communities, unrestrained by customs barriers or investment restrictions, and molested as little as possible by taxation. What they insistently demand is the privatization of state-owned businesses of all kind and the conversion of public institutions from universities and botanical gardens to prisons, from libraries and schools to old-age homes into private enterprises run for profit. What they promise is more dynamic economy that will generate new wealth--while saying nothing about the distribution of any wealth, old or new. They call it the free market, but I call it turbo-capitalism because it is so profoundly different from the strictly controlled capitalism that flourished from 1945 until the 1980s, and that brought the sensational novelty of mass affluence to the peoples of the United States, Western Europe, Japan, and all other countries that followed their paths."
-- Edward Luttwak

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A new kind of capitalism is raging around the globe--and its economic and social consequences could be crippling. In Turbo-Capitalism, Edward Luttwak, a noted international strategist and consultant, warns that the free market has gone amok. He predicts possible massive increases in poverty, crime, and unemployment, especially in the Third World, which lacks the political and legal systems of the U.S. Unlike the benign, carefully controlled capitalism that ruled from the 1940s to the 1980s, this new whirlwind capitalism will eventually create tremendous social upheaval. "Allowing turbo-capitalism to have its way, as in the United States and the United Kingdom, results in widening income differentials in exchange for not-so-rapid growth," writes Luttwak, who provides plenty of statistics to support his argument. Luttwak acknowledges that economic progress could be crippled if the world returns to the old model of government regulation, and this he calls the "great dilemma," with no easy answers.

While Luttwak's interest is more global, he offers some domestic examples to illustrate the effects of capitalism unleashed. He points to Boeing, which suffered from massive layoffs in the 1990s, even as aircraft orders soared. And he ridicules the notion that high-tech will come to the rescue with thousands of new jobs for downsized blue-collar and white-collar workers, calling these hopes "The Microsoft Mirage." A sweeping, sometimes densely written treatise, Turbo-Capitalism raises important questions for policymakers and business leaders. --Dan Ring

From Publishers Weekly

Since the administrations of Reagan and Thatcher, the virtues of deregulation and privatization have become accepted wisdom in the U.S. and the U.K. Luttwak, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., and the author of The Endangered American Dream, has dubbed this free market, with its accelerated rate of structural change, "turbo-capitalism." Although he shares the general opinion that deregulation, privatization and globalization have reinvigorated sleepy economies, he writes that within the shiny apple of prosperity achieved in the U.S. and Britain lurks a worm in the form of reduced real wages, greater income inequality and increased alienation among those excluded from the benefits of growth. Luttwak argues that, in the U.S., such negative consequences are balanced by a vigorous legal system and Calvinist values. He is not as sanguine about the prospects for countries where turbo-capitalism is unchecked by such legal and cultural balances. Seeing unemployment as the global problem of our time and realizing that turbo-capitalism is more likely to aggravate than alleviate it, Luttwak singles out Japan as exemplary for its full employment policy, which endorses the position that the economy exists to serve society, not the other way around. Clearly relishing his Cassandra-like role, Luttwak outlines worst-case scenarios: conservative European monetary policy (with the euro) inhibits employment opportunities; geo-economic conflicts erupt with the spread of globalization. Even if his darkest forebodings never materialize, Luttwak puts readers on notice that, at the very least, speed bumps lie along the road ahead.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper (February 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060193301
• ISBN-13: 978-0060193300
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,549,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward N. Luttwak is senior associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has served as a consultant to numerous government offices including: the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. He is the author of numerous books and articles including Strategy and Politics, The Endangered American Dream, and Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating! Can we afford totally free markets?, July 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Turbo-Capitalism: Winners And Losers In The Global Economy (Hardcover)

An illuminating discussion of modern global economics that is easily accessible to a non-economist. Any American who has been puzzled, thrilled, or appalled by the rapid changes in the business environment of the last decade, either here or abroad, will want to read this book. Its strategic approach puts the pieces that we read in the media together into an integrated picture. Even readers who do not agree with all that Luttwak postulates will find that this book provokes much thought and some great arguments with friends.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An American author with deep insight of Europe, August 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Turbo-Capitalism: Winners And Losers In The Global Economy (Hardcover)

I knew that Luttwak is fluent in Italian for having seen him talking in several interviews on Italian TV so I was expecting from him a good insight of the Italian political situation.

What I did not expected was such an extremly good insight of the situation of Venezia, my hometown, which is usually not understand even from other Italian living nearby!! Luttwak really surprised me. I would like to know from other readers if his insight of Japan and Russia was good and reliable as the one of Italy (and Continental Europe in general).

One small defect of this book is that the bibliography is not really that satisfing, albeit the idea to give the url of the economical tables is great.

As a final point I have to say that I was strocken by the fact that Luttwak does not draw a clear conclusion about the fate of "turbo capitalism"; except for the statement that, as it happens to all human things, it will pass. Fact of which I am personally convinced too, point is how it will pass.

I hope the author will clarify his toughts about it in a future work which, hopefully, will contain a more extented bibliography.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and very readable analysis of the new capitalism, February 3, 2004

By 

Alessandro Bruno (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy (Paperback)

Unlike some other reviewers, I find that Edward Luttwak's analysis of the new capitalism, or what he calls Turbo capitalism, was very well considered and presented. Luttwak knows europe very well, as he lives and teaches in Italy and speaks a number of languages fluently. The book is not a condmenation o cpaitalism; rather it shows how from the late seventies and after the fall of Soviet communism the Keynesian economic system that had been devised to produce a compromise between the aspirations of socialism and the practical realities of capitalism, which existed in much of the Western world has been dismantled. He notes that in order to reduce the appeal of socialism, which was gaining ground throughout Europe prior to the rise of fascism and after the Second World War, Western governments were almost forced into satisfying vast numbers of their populations by institutionalizing such benefits as free medical service and schooling. the equalizing policies help to soften demands for outright socilaism while allowing free enterprise to grow - albeit with some regulation. Luttwak then terms 'turbo capitalism' that transformation, which took place after the fall of the Berlin wall, characterized by the de-regualtion of free enterprise and the simultaneous retraction of the social welfare mechanisms that had been established in the post-war period.
Luttwak also looks at how certain market inefficiencies, like having too many employees, family businesses and fewer working hours actually helped make the 'capitalist' system more sustainable for the vast majority - or for what used to be the middle class until a decade ago. Turbo capitalism has accelerated and accentuated class divides, reducing the influence and size of the middle class. There are some cultural anecdotes involving work hours and differences in public morality between the United States and Europe mentioned here and there and they add an amusing effect. i found little to object in what he noted, as he remained fair and relevant. Overall this is an excellent book, which provides a great deal of insight into an the socio-economic processes that affecting the modern society.