Peeplog

The 'Japanese Model' has not gone away

Japan: Refutation of Neo-liberalism

A useful piece by Robert Locke returns to the argument that Japan offers a version of a political economy which is both different and successful. There is an alternative which may offer partial models for customised adoption elsewhere.

Public Enterprises USA: Transport

As we 'copy' the US it changes and returns to traditions that we tend not to notice. One is its republican traditions of a 'political economy of citizenship.' Traditionally the USA had a high degree of public intervention to secure the economic infrastructure that made its economy so powerful. Is it returning to some of this? A report from Michigan's centre of US auto manufacture suggests it is. Michigan Land Use Institute: Making Smart Growth a Reality In Michigan suggests that "The study found Michigan’s metropolises taking significant steps to rebuild the high-quality, regional public transportation systems that existed 50 years ago." It goes on:

It’s Real. It’s Happening Embracing public transit as a realistic regional transportation choice in Michigan, as it already is in the nation’s greatest metropolitan regions — New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle — comes not a moment too soon. From Cleveland and Atlanta to St. Louis and Dallas, public transit is becoming the powerful economic engine its proponents long predicted.

In St. Louis, for example, new light rail lines and enhanced bus services helped generate some $2 billion in public and private commitments to new development — including hospitals, retail centers, and high-end housing.

In Atlanta, BellSouth consolidated 75 scattered telecommunications operations into offices near the city’s new light rail system, simultaneously expanding the city’s investment and job base and giving half of the company’s 20,000 employees a new, attractive transportation choice.

Is Japan Still the Future?

A recent item in a high tech publication thinks it still has technological strengths...
Review of the Sharp SL-C760

I've been to Japan twice, spending a month in the land of the rising sun over the past two years. On both occasions, I've been amazed at the ubiquity of cool technology. The tiniest cell phones, smallest DVD players, lightest laptops all seem to be available in Japan long before they cross the marketing ocean of the Pacific to the shores of the US. It's truly a country of tech-savvy early adopters and is perhaps the perfect testing ground for the latest and greatest in cool devices. If you want to know what's ahead for technology in the next few years in the US, you have to look to Japan.

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