Anthony D'Costa writes: "The Japanese have a term, which they have used for industrial policy, kato kyoso (excessive competition), which they want to avoid during downturns. Hence they allow recession cartels to be formed to hold prices up instead of encouraging cut-throat competition and lower prices. This I believe is what Michael is saying."
In the United States, our historic response to "kato kyoso" was the National Industry Recovery Act, which was probably the least popular Depression era legislation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Act. I assume because of its unpopularity, the schizoid Roosevelt administration eventually decided that it was against monopolies and for the enforcement of antitrust legislation, which was antithetical to the pseudo-fascist NRA ethos. Consequently, there has been no real intellectual support since from the right of left in the United States for policy to curb "excessive competition." David Shemano _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
