Listen now | My podcast this week is a fascinating discussion with Ian Fletcher, co-author of the comprehensive new book Industrial Policy for the United States (Cambridge University Press).
I can confidently say that anyone who says "trust economic history rather than economic theory" doesn't know what he's talking about. It is literally impossible to make sense of economic history without theory. A true atheoretical history would just be lists of facts. Once you make any statement about something causing another thing you're engaging in theory.
Well, I admit to being stunned. I had to compare pictures and name-spelling to assure myself that the interviewer of Ian Fletcher here was the same Aaron Renn who wrote TorqueWrench. All I can say is "well done, sir!". (Stick with this.)
Everything that your guest, Ian Fletcher (who I don't know), I agree with. And it sounded like you did, as well, and you also betrayed an inclination to empiricism that seemed wholly absent on the religious writing side. Well, ok.
I could have (and have actually) written about everything Fletcher described. I lived and worked for almost 6 years in Europe, 3.75 in Germany and 1.5 in Switzerland. Plus, when working for Oracle company in NYC, I was tasked with projects in Germany and France. In Germany I worked longest for Daimler-Benz AG, but also its neighbor in Stuttgart IBM and CibaGeigy in Wehr. Switzerland is where I left the industrial world and had my first gig in financial services at the original SwissBankCorp in Basel. This is what led me back to NYC and 26 years on Wall Street... But I digress.
One of the signature experiences I had early on at Daimler was its involvement in the rescue of the giant electronics corporation SEL which made everything from radios and televisions to lightbulbs to aircraft guidance systems and everything in between. Most products/product lines were taken over or distributed among competing firms (including DB) in a very orderly and worker-friendly fashion and almost all the pensions and benefits were retained and only a smallish number of executives lost their jobs. I would also shock my fellow techies back in NYC when I told them how all but group managers were in the same union: engineers of all kinds along with assembly line workers and including also the workers in the plant cafeterias.
My writings on my experiences of Europe are about comparing the sort of societies Europe has built to the shabby world in the USA. Typically, if Americans know anything about "socialism" in Europe, they think of Sweden or Denmark (where I also have spent a fair amount of time) and they invariably have a dim and uninformed view of them... except for their beliefs about the Nordics sexual liberalism or such.
When I would tell any other Americans about how things work in Germany, they would be stunned: how could "socialism" produce such superior products. And then I would provide a full description of "socialism" there (and in most of Europe) whereby you didn't drown in medical debt or have to pay anything for education from kindergarten to post-doc or trades master license and that you get up to 6 weeks paid vacation a year: this was dreaded SOCIALISM?. And, since this was in the 80s, American manufacturing --most of all of automobiles-- was already plumbing the depths of failure and disintegration.
And then there were the other quirks: religion. The government levys a church tax as a small percentage of income tax for churches and their operation and upkeep. Sure, not every religion, but the mainstream religions: Catholic, Protestant and Islam now get this support.
What a great interview.
Especially the closing remark, "Economic theory is not your friend, economic history is your friend."
BTW, Corelli Barnett's, Audit of War is a great book about Britain's economic decline. Just as a politics is downstream of culture so is economics.
I can confidently say that anyone who says "trust economic history rather than economic theory" doesn't know what he's talking about. It is literally impossible to make sense of economic history without theory. A true atheoretical history would just be lists of facts. Once you make any statement about something causing another thing you're engaging in theory.
History validates economic theory. A theory which does not produce the results that it predicts is an economic fantasy.
Thanks!
Makes too much sense to be considered by the uniparty.
Well, I admit to being stunned. I had to compare pictures and name-spelling to assure myself that the interviewer of Ian Fletcher here was the same Aaron Renn who wrote TorqueWrench. All I can say is "well done, sir!". (Stick with this.)
Everything that your guest, Ian Fletcher (who I don't know), I agree with. And it sounded like you did, as well, and you also betrayed an inclination to empiricism that seemed wholly absent on the religious writing side. Well, ok.
I could have (and have actually) written about everything Fletcher described. I lived and worked for almost 6 years in Europe, 3.75 in Germany and 1.5 in Switzerland. Plus, when working for Oracle company in NYC, I was tasked with projects in Germany and France. In Germany I worked longest for Daimler-Benz AG, but also its neighbor in Stuttgart IBM and CibaGeigy in Wehr. Switzerland is where I left the industrial world and had my first gig in financial services at the original SwissBankCorp in Basel. This is what led me back to NYC and 26 years on Wall Street... But I digress.
One of the signature experiences I had early on at Daimler was its involvement in the rescue of the giant electronics corporation SEL which made everything from radios and televisions to lightbulbs to aircraft guidance systems and everything in between. Most products/product lines were taken over or distributed among competing firms (including DB) in a very orderly and worker-friendly fashion and almost all the pensions and benefits were retained and only a smallish number of executives lost their jobs. I would also shock my fellow techies back in NYC when I told them how all but group managers were in the same union: engineers of all kinds along with assembly line workers and including also the workers in the plant cafeterias.
My writings on my experiences of Europe are about comparing the sort of societies Europe has built to the shabby world in the USA. Typically, if Americans know anything about "socialism" in Europe, they think of Sweden or Denmark (where I also have spent a fair amount of time) and they invariably have a dim and uninformed view of them... except for their beliefs about the Nordics sexual liberalism or such.
When I would tell any other Americans about how things work in Germany, they would be stunned: how could "socialism" produce such superior products. And then I would provide a full description of "socialism" there (and in most of Europe) whereby you didn't drown in medical debt or have to pay anything for education from kindergarten to post-doc or trades master license and that you get up to 6 weeks paid vacation a year: this was dreaded SOCIALISM?. And, since this was in the 80s, American manufacturing --most of all of automobiles-- was already plumbing the depths of failure and disintegration.
And then there were the other quirks: religion. The government levys a church tax as a small percentage of income tax for churches and their operation and upkeep. Sure, not every religion, but the mainstream religions: Catholic, Protestant and Islam now get this support.
Well, you never know....
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.