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

The Hewlett-Packard Mystery
AUGUST 12--I've been reading everything about the sacking of Mark Hurd, but it still does not add up. And whenever there is a mystery about a board's actions, the board has not done its job properly. A board should demonstrate conclusively that it has discharged ...
Read More

American Jobs--Waiting for Godot
AUGUST 6--Today's headline: Companies hire at slow pace for 3rd straight month Private employers added 71,000 jobs in July; unemployment rate unchanged at 9.5 percent Once again, economists are waiting for a recovery in jobs that just is not going to happen. Why ...
Read More

Korean Multinationals Must Mature
This is what I told the audience of Koreans at the Seoul Forum on July 7 in Seoul: --I do not foresee an across-the-board assault from China in three to five years: The Chinese are making a big push to move up the technology value chain but they are still far ...
Read More

Japanese “Decline:” An Amazing Statistic
Aug. 1-- This from the July 26 edition of Bloomberg Business Week: U.S. corporations had $1.84 trillion in cash and other liquid assets at the end of the first quarter. Pretty impressive, right? But Japanese businesses held $2.3 trillion in currency and deposits ...
Read More

Continued Confusion About the American Economy
NEW YORK--July 31 American economists are so confused. They are puzzled about why the economic "recovery' is not performing the way they want it to. As I've repeatedly argued, the Americans are dealing with the end of a bubble period. They face major structural ...
Read More

Seven Myths About Japanese “Decline”
TOKYO, July 29-- There is such a stunning gap between the images of Japan being promulgated by the American media and the reality of being on the ground in Japan, a subject I will keep turning to in coming days. I thought it might be useful here to ...
Read More

Japanese Elections: What They Show About the Role of Japanese Politicians
TOKYO--I was in Japan for the July 11 Upper House elections and spoke with Koichi Kato, a member of the Diet, and with Takao Toshikawa, editor of Insideline and also the Tokyo correspondent of The Oriental Economist. As everyone knows by know, the old Liberal ...
Read More

CHINA WATCH--Why Emerging Chinese Companies Have Such Difficulty With Branding
JULY 27--An obscure article in today's Wall Street Journal contains some profound truths. The article by Kathy Chen, from a Chicago dateline, features a Chinese man by the name of Jack Yang who is attempting to promote a line of dashboard mounts for GPS devices ...
Read More

NORTH KOREA--Beware of Unintended Consequences
JULY 24 (Continuing a series of commentaries and travel notes from an Asian journey.) The Obama Administration seems to be pursuing the same policy toward North Korea that the previous Bush Administration did. One strand of this strategy is the hope that American ...
Read More

50,000 Thank You’s
JULY 1--In this crazy media world, I'm delighted to announced that the number of hits to my website and blog has now passed the 50,000 mark. That's occurred over roughly an 18-month period. I don't how who you all are and I don't know how many of you are repeat ...
Read More

Thoughtful Views From Reader About Multinationals
JULY 1-- Reader Astor thinks that personality types are just as important as the factors I cited to allow teams of different nationals to function well together at the top of large American corporation, and he argues that the Americans are ahead of the Europeans ...
Read More

Reader Responds to Article on New Challenges Facing Multinationals
JUNE 30--Here is an exchange between a reader of my article in KPMG's Agenda magazine (http://www.kpmg.com/agendaonline) and myself regarding the management of multinational corporations. I posted the original article on April 27: From: John Astor Subject: Your ...
Read More

Is the Insurance Industry Red-Lining?
JUNE 27--This is a personal story, but it may have a broader national spin. I received a call a few weeks ago from the Oxford unit of UnitedHealth Care informing me that the health insurance policy I was carrying for my wife and myself was being canceled as of ...
Read More

China’s Revaluation: Did The Red Sea Part?
JUNE 26--I've waited a few days after China's announcement that it would allow greater flexibility in the movement of the yuan so see if any miracles had occurred. Nope, doesn't look like it. Washington policy-makers and the think tank/media crowd in Washington ...
Read More

The Restructuring of the U.S. Economy--the Economists Still Don’t Get It
JUNE 17--An article in the Wall Street Journal says that there is a sharp divergence emerging in the U.S. economy, with housing stumbling and the industrial sector booming. Divergence? This is what has to happen as part of the structural change of our economy. We ...
Read More