Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/05

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Subject: Re: [Leica] The Nature of Japanese Corporate Ownership
From: Nathan Wajsman <nathan.wajsman@euronet.be>
Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 21:46:54 +0200

Marc,

As an economist by training, I am a deeply cynical person and when I see a
paper like the one you refer to below, I first check who is paying the bills.
In this case the paper is produced by something called "Coalition for Open
Trade" which is most likely sponsored by American companies with a vested
interest. The web page on which the paper is located belongs to an
international trade law firm in Washington, DC--who do you suppose they tend
to represent?

I am too tired to actually read through the paper tonight; perhaps it is good
and objective. But given the lack of identified authors, and given its
location, I am a bit suspicious. U.S. firms like to portray themselves as
victims of foreign restraints of trade; the truth is a lot more nuanced, and
the U.S. economy is not nearly as open (and the Japanese one not nearly as
closed) as the popular press would have us believe.

Nathan

Marc James Small wrote:

> Those on the LUG who honestly subscribe to the belief that organizations
> such as Mitsubishi are not centrally controlled conglomerates are
> encouraged to conduct an Alta Vista or Googol search under "Zaibatsu" and
> "Mitsubishi".  Look for the various economic analyses of the nature of the
> Japanese economy:  there is much there, all of it solid reading, showing
> that the Japanese protestations to the contrary are eye-wash.
>
> One such paper is the 1991 study from the Coalition for Open Trade (COT):
>
> http://www.dbtrade.com/casework/cot/cot1/cot1.htm
>
> But there are a slew of other sites with similar analyses.
>
> This really isn't shockingly hot-of-the-presses news:  it has been the
> standard fare taught in Western business schools and the like for a
> half-century.
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!



- --
Nathan Wajsman
Overijse, Belgium

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