Newspaper Article

HOW CAN WE WIN IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY? We All Win In Free Markets

Francis Fukuyama. Francis Fukuyama is the author of

1992

Overview

Foreseeing economic trends is a risky business, because the losers of one generation have the funny habit of coming up winners - and the reverse. Just after World War II, Asia was seen as a basket case: Many believed that Confucian culture doomed countries like Korea, China and Thailand to stagnation. Today, these countries have become supercompetitive \"tigers,\" and people argue that their Confucian heritage has promoted thrift, discipline and, yes, family values. The implications for U.S. policy are clear. In the midst of a prolonged economic slowdown, Americans are understandably reluctant to aid the former Soviet bloc or see U.S.investment capital (and hence jobs) flee to Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Calculating only short-term losses, they don't see the long-term gains when today's capital importers become tomorrow's capital exporters, creating new markets for and new employment in the U.S. In contrast to the old geopolitical competition, we stand only to gain from the rise of new economic winners.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Global economy