William J. Holstein

About this blog:

I believe that the most important thing Americans have to do is secure their economic well-being in an increasingly challenging, complex world. All the arguments about culture (school prayer, the flag, etc.) are fine for other Americans to have—and they are a healthy sign of democracy. But they are beside the point.

What I have written about all these years is the process of creating wealth, not for any one individual, but for the United States as a whole. Ever since I was a young correspondent witnessing the emergence of China, just after the country opened in 1979, I've held the opinion that we have to get more serious about increasing the wealth of the U.S.

That means focusing not only on how our corporations are run (governance), but also on innovation and productivity/competitiveness. Despite the predicament in which we find ourselves today (and I think we face a tough five-year economic restructuring, not a mild recession), I retain faith in the resiliency of the U.S. economy and the enterprise of American people. If Americans have the right facts, and focus on the task at hand, we can once again get serious about creating wealth, not just playing funny money games.

So come with me on this journey as I explore the complicated issues involved in maintaining the economic health of the U.S

Japan Election Watch--The Truth Emerges
Sept. 8--After all the hype about the cracking of Japan's post-war order, we discover that the real architect of the Democratic Party of Japan's election victory was none other than Ichiro Ozawa, 67, one of the godfathers of old-style Japanese politics. This is ...
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Japan Election Watch--The American Media Goes Crazy Again
Aug. 31--Japanese politicians are not really in control of their government and serve more as a source of amusement for the powerful bureaucrats and industrialists who really run the country. But the American media and foreign policy establishment want to believe ...
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I Wanted To Stand Up and Cheer--
--when I saw this article today, Aug. 28 in the New York Times. Times This is a very insightful look at how Americans chased an artificial kind of economic growth in these recent bubble years. The article is about the Phoenix area but also applies to California, ...
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Hell yes, Washingtoon Should Favor Domestics
August 27--The Wall Street Journal ran a story day entitled, "Foreign Car Makers Fear a Detroit Bias in Washington." Toyota and others are worried about the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler as well as moves to require federal agencies to buy vehicles from the ...
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Japan Election Watch: What It Means, What it Doesn’t
Aug. 26--The Western media's treatment of elections in Japan is consistently bad, and we're seeing another round of bad coverage now that an opposition group, the Democratic Party, seems poised to oust the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in elections on Aug. ...
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Important NCR Decision on Outsourcing
Aug. 20--For years, CEOs have charged down the outsourcing path, moving the production of countless products offshore and often putting them in the hands of other companies like Flextronics. I have feared that would disrupt a key part of the innovation process--if ...
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The Myth of the V-Shaped Recovery
Aug. 18--Economists, traders and many journalists keep talking about the V-shaped recovery. In other words, they expect that after a rapid descent (the first downward slash of the V) that there will be an equally sharp rebound, for the other side of the ...
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Wall Street Journal: Trivializing Business News
Aug. 13--As someone who has dedicated most of my professional life to business coverage, I've noticed that the Wall Street Journal, under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch, has taken cuteness to an extreme. It's one thing for the Journal to have a clever pun in a ...
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Gambling as a False God
Aug. 11--For years now, American states have been charging into various forms of gambling to create jobs and tax revenues. Las Vegas stands as the ultimate case of this--when you fly through the bleak Nevada desert, suddenly there is a green spot up ahead with ...
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The Cerberus Group as Patriots?
Aug. 10--The New York Times ran a very interesting story Sunday about Cerberus, the vaunted private equity group that purchased Chrysler, Chrysler Financial and GMAC. Steve Feinberg, co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, portrayed himself as a new Master of ...
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The Myth that Manufacturing Does Not Matter
Aug. 3--There's an important piece inside the pages of today's Wall Street Journal by Timothy Aeppel, a reporter who has been writing about manufacturing and innovation for many years. It's about the view expressed by some economists that it's not a bad thing that ...
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China Watch--The Shifting U.S. Relationship
July 29--As an old China hand, who first was posted to Hong Kong some 30 years ago, I find it fascinating that the Chinese are beginning to exercise real power in the relationship with Washington. In some very important ways, the tables have been turned. Accustomed ...
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New York Times Coverage of GM--A New Low
July 27--The New York Times Sunday business section has brought the newspaper's coverage of General Motors to a new, ridiculous low--it ran a huge cartoon about the company's bankruptcy. If you missed the print version, two frames of the nine-frame cartoon can be ...
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The Wrong Picks for GM’s Board
July 25--The government's choices to join the board of General Motors are distinctly underwhelming. They have experience in private equity and telecommunications, but precious little in technology, global business, design or manufacturing, which are skills that GM ...
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Restoring American Competitiveness--Great Article in Harvard Business Review
July 21--In the deep heart of summer, most people will likely miss an article in the Harvard Business Review. The fact that the magazine costs $16.95 on the newsstand is another reason most people will never see it. But it's an important piece by Gary P. ...
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