Unsustainable

Eamonn Fingleton
November 2003     ISBN: 1560255145

When financial journalist Eamonn Fingleton anticipated the meltdown of the New Economy in the late nineties his predictions were dismissed by mainstream economic writers as "far-fetched." Now, with the New Economy in ruins and America mired in recession, Fingleton's avowedly contrarian take on mainstream ecomonic thinking seems ever more prescient.

Written in lucid prose that renders the complexity of world economics clear to the general reader, Unsustainable is a masterly survey of how the US economy's turn from manufacturing to a more service-based, "postindustrial" economy has been a disaster for working- and middle-class Americans and threatens the long-term viability of the US economy.

"Fingleton ably articulates a contrarian thesis, arguing that manufacturing--not America's 'post-industrial economy' based on services and information technology--is best equipped to deliver high wages, low unemployment and a bedrock for future prosperity. His scathing, selective, tour of the U.S. computer, financial services and entertainment industries turns up colossal waste, puny exports, mismanagement, and hype. Bolstered by close analysis and chock full of intriguing examples of manufacturing triumphs and untapped opportunities, Fingleton's sobering report deserves close scrutiny by CEOs, labor leaders, and policy makers."

--Publisher's Weekly

"[A] powerful critique of the conventional party line."

--Ralph Nader

"Indispensible reading for Americans."

--Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback