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As we stand on the brink of the new millennium,
MIT economist Lester Thurow addresses the critical issue
of wealth creation. The result is an essential road map
for how individuals, companies, and nations can and must
build wealth in a knowledge-based global economy.
There is no doubt that we are in the middle
of a transition to a knowledge-based economy; breakthrough
technologies in microelectronics, biotechnology, new materials,
telecommunications, robotics, and computers are fundamentally
changing the game of creating wealth. Thanks to the impact
of these technologies, new industries (software, gene therapy)
are growing explosively and existing industries (banking,
retail) are being transformed beyond recognition.
Out of these transformations, a new global
economy is emerging to replace existing national economies.
Almost alone, the American economy seems to be enjoying
a period of unprecedented growth. Is this growth sustainable?
Is global integration a boon or a threat to this trend?
Will the forces that sparked the Asian meltdown -- a crisis
that is meticulously evaluated in these pages -- provoke
a more persistent era of stagnation or worse? Should global
integration be slowed? Can it be slowed? What lies ahead
in the near future?
What skills are needed to succeed in this
new economy? What new rules must apply to the creation and
protection of new ideas? How are environmental problems
such as global warming going to affect wealth creation?
How can marketable wealth be rising at ever-faster rates
while productivity growth is slowing? How can nations create
a social system in which the entrepreneurial spirit can
flourish without also creating income and wealth inequalities
that threaten the system?
In the groundbreaking final chapters of
Building Wealth, Professor Thurow turns his attention
to the three current major economic sectors of the world:
America, East Asia, and Europe. He provides a trenchant
analysis of each as a significant competitor in the coming
decades, and predicts the likely outcome of the complex
forces that are presently shaping global society.
Lester C. Thurow is the Lemelson Professor
of Management and Economics at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, where he has taught since 1968. From 1987
through 1993 he was dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management.
His previous books include The Zero-Sum Society,
Head to Head, and The Future of Capitalism
-- all New York Times bestsellers.
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