Newsweek: The Fall of America, Inc.

[marmar]

The Fall of America, Inc.
Along with some of Wall Street's most storied firms, a certain vision of capitalism has collapsed. How we restore faith in our brand.

By Francis Fukuyama | NEWSWEEK
Published Oct 4, 2008
From the magazine issue dated Oct 13, 2008


The implosion of America's most storied investment banks. The vanishing of more than a trillion dollars in stock-market wealth in a day. A $700 billion tab for U.S. taxpayers. The scale of the Wall Street crackup could scarcely be more gargantuan. Yet even as Americans ask why they're having to pay such mind-bending sums to prevent the economy from imploding, few are discussing a more intangible, yet potentially much greater cost to the United States—the damage that the financial meltdown is doing to America's "brand."

Ideas are one of our most important exports, and two fundamentally American ideas have dominated global thinking since the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was elected president. The first was a certain vision of capitalism—one that argued low taxes, light regulation and a pared-back government would be the engine for economic growth. Reaganism reversed a century-long trend toward ever-larger government. Deregulation became the order of the day not just in the United States but around the world.

The second big idea was America as a promoter of liberal democracy around the world, which was seen as the best path to a more prosperous and open international order. America's power and influence rested not just on our tanks and dollars, but on the fact that most people found the American form of self-government attractive and wanted to reshape their societies along the same lines—what political scientist Joseph Nye has labeled our "soft power."

It's hard to fathom just how badly these signature features of the American brand have been discredited. Between 2002 and 2007, while the world was enjoying an unprecedented period of growth, it was easy to ignore those European socialists and Latin American populists who denounced the U.S. economic model as "cowboy capitalism." But now the engine of that growth, the American economy, has gone off the rails and threatens to drag the rest of the world down with it. Worse, the culprit is the American model itself: under the mantra of less government, Washington failed to adequately regulate the financial sector and allowed it to do tremendous harm to the rest of the society.

Democracy was tarnished even earlier. Once Saddam was proved not to have WMD, the Bush administration sought to justify the Iraq War by linking it to a broader "freedom agenda"; suddenly the promotion of democracy was a chief weapon in the war against terrorism. To many people around the world, America's rhetoric about democracy sounds a lot like an excuse for furthering U.S. hegemony. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/162401

[charlie]

1. What's he still doing around?

History is over! We've been living in the best of all possible worlds since 1987.

Oops.

Fucking OOPS.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. Support our Oops! - n\t

[charlie]

22. Lol

:thumbsup:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Reaganism is dead! Long live Reaganism!

:sarcasm:

[ingac70]

Francis Fukuyama, PNAC signator...

he should do the world a favor and off himself.

He's part of the reason lies were made up about Iraq. He helped put the nation on this path.

[olegramps]

6. Many people remain in the dark about the PNAC

Our media sold us out when they purposely failed to warn the American people about the STATED intentions of the PNAC. They are repeating the same disservice by totally neglecting the fact that the vary same people who dreamed up the nitwit policy of democratizing the Middle East at the point of a gun are major players in the McCain camp. As for Fungi, he is part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Interestingly, Fukuyama pretty much repudiated neoconservatism a few years ago.

He now seems to think it's a failed ideology (duh). So I'll give him credit for that -- but he still deserves an ass-kicking for ever having bought into it in the first place.

[JCMach1]

24. 'End of History' my ass! We are living through the TRIUMPH

of Capitalism...

Why does this guy still get published???

[Mist]

3. "America, Inc." (corporate America) is doing okay. America, the country and

its citizens, not so much. Small businesses, even mid-size businesses, are hurting, as are the majority of citizens.

The corporations, while wringing their hands, have made sure they got theirs (or at least the board and upper management).

[Marsala]

4. So much for "the end of history", eh? n/t

[arcadian]

5. America is a rogue nation, Francis.

There never has been any saving grace when describing America, we've always been pirates.

[Uncle Joe]

8. To the contrary, soft power wasn't discredited, our abusive use of hard power was discredited..

The best way to promote liberal democracy around the world is to walk the walk and we haven't been doing that. Winning an election has taken precedence over determining the will and intent of the people.

The selection of 2000 was our first abandonment of any pretense to us being a liberal democracy, our soft power or credibility was greatly diminished abroad and at home, a premeditated, unnecessary war based on lies against a third rate power, which happened to be oil rich, and the promotion of torture put us on par with the terrorists, we're just more powerful than them.

Illegal Big Brother wiretapping in the so called land of the free and home of the brave sure as hell didn't instill confidence in our culture or government's faith in the people and the rule of law.

The Netherlands has more freedom than we have, we have corporations that profit from the imprisonment of the American People. Does anyone want to guess what kind of draconian laws our prison corporations will be lobbying for? I doubt it will be for more freedom for the American People, after all the more prisoners they house, the more money they make.

Our Congress has socialistic health care for themselves, but socialism is a dirty word in regards to the American People's health care. The stench from this hypocrisy wafts around the world, especially with every other industrialized nation that believes in taking care of their own peoples.

We've become Ferengi having lost faith in a public good while placing private short term profit on the holy altar. I guess this is why we put "In God we Trust" on our money, because if you don't have money, God help you, whether it be health care, competent legal representation or anything else as the government doesn't believe in it. The ironic thing is, Jesus was never more violent than when he threw the money changers out of the temple, a straw that broke the camel's back and led to his execution so yeah I guess we've lost our way. Maybe this is why many of those same people support capital punishment?

So for some other nation to discredit our soft power is to discredit what we haven't used, we discredited our soft power by flushing it down the toilet, some time back. While nations the world over may still respect our military power, aka; hard power, most of them no longer admire us as an inspirational example to emulate. They've left us behind, whether it be the issue of health care, freedom for their people to pursue their own happiness without being arrested, the opposition to unjust capital punishment or the issue of global warming climate change.

[Wiley50]

9. Fuckyermama seems to have come around in some ways, but then again

for instance, he makes a lot of progress here:

"Still, another comeback rests on our ability to make some fundamental changes. First, we must break out of the Reagan-era straitjacket concerning taxes and regulation. Tax cuts feel good but do not necessarily stimulate growth or pay for themselves; given our long-term fiscal situation Americans are going to have to be told honestly that they will have to pay their own way in the future. Deregulation, or the failure of regulators to keep up with fast-moving markets, can become unbelievably costly, as we have seen. The entire American public sector—underfunded, deprofessionalized and demoralized—needs to be rebuilt and be given a new sense of pride. There are certain jobs that only the government can fulfill."

of course, in the very next paragraph he shows he's still got a ways to go:

"As we undertake these changes, of course, there's a danger of overcorrecting. Financial institutions need strong supervision, but it isn't clear that other sectors of the economy do. Free trade remains a powerful motor for economic growth, as well as an instrument of U.S. diplomacy. We should provide better assistance to workers adjusting to changing global conditions, rather than defend their existing jobs. If tax cutting is not a path to automatic prosperity, neither is unconstrained social spending. The cost of the bailouts and the long-term weakness of the dollar mean that inflation will be a serious threat in the future. An irresponsible fiscal policy could easily add to the problem.

And while fewer non-Americans are likely to listen to our advice, many would still benefit from emulating certain aspects of the Reagan model. Not, certainly, financial-market deregulation. But in continental Europe, workers are still treated to long vacations, short working weeks, job guarantees and a host of other benefits that weaken their productivity and will not be financially sustainable."


Give the boy some more time

[Neshanic]

10. Oh you chicken littles. Nothing a good dose of credit can't cure.

[Selatius]

11. Francis Fukuyama is a PNAC signatory. His views are utterly discredited. Fuck him nt

[alfredo]

12. Not any more. He has jumped ship when he got a good look at who

was at the helm.

[Selatius]

13. He's still discredited. He only jumped ship because of the people, not the ideology.

Ultimately, he probably still believes in spreading democracy at the point of a gun. He may be against war profiteering and torture, but has he repudiated the underlying ideological principles that justified the Iraq War or the War on Terrorism?

He mourns the damage to America's "soft power" in terms of making other countries do what we want. If he were not interested in economic hegemony over the planet, he wouldn't give a damn.

[alfredo]

14. The way I see it, if they step to the light, I want to reward it and

encourage another step toward the light. Maybe by the time the come fully into the light, they won't be such shitheads.

[Selatius]

18. I'm not as optimistic as you in that regard. These guys are so far authoritarian I see no point.

The energy would be better spent pulling more moderate folks towards more libertarian methods. It's akin to writing off trying to convince people at Free Republic of our solutions in favor of the mushy middle who can still be convinced.

[alfredo]

23. I know a vast majority will never change, they are too fearful to try

to see things differently.

[Trillo]

15. Can't have welfare for the poor, only the rich?

Programs like Aid to Families With Dependent Children created disincentives for poor families to work and stay married, and families broke down.

What other horseshit mind-programmings does this article have?

[Hannah Bell]

17. falsehoods: "we" "our" "brand"

[Bryn]

19. We might as well make a new flag for Corporate America

The Flag of the United States of America does not apply anymore.

[KoKo]

20. He and Peggy Noonan seemed to have joined arms....worried about Reagan Legacy going down with Chimp

and they are both falling all over themselves trying to dig outta that hole they dug themselves into when they signed onto Reaganomics and the Neo-Cons who came after.

[Recursion]

21. Hey Frankie! Still think history is over?

Though he was at least a neocon who came out against Iraq early.