Pacific Rift: Adventures in the Fault Zone Between the US and Japan (The Larger Agenda Series)

This is significant and not dated. Lewis explores how the Japanese rose from the defeat of World War II to defeat America on most fronts. On a pound for Pound basis Japan is still outperforming America on most fronts. If it looks like they are not it is only because Taiwan and South Korea and Germany and Sweden are also doing so well. The integration between government and industry in Japan is like nothing our own economics professors and statesmen are capable of describing or reacting to.

Michael Lewis, the controversial author of Liar's Poker, and later writer for the New York Time's Magazine, is quite a writer. He proves his talent yet again in this work about Japanese-American business relations and cultural differences in the 1980s.As the saying goes, if you liked Liar's Poker, you'll love Pacific Rift.My only word of caution is that the book may seem dated now that the U.S. isn't scared to death of the Japanese economic "machine". However, the book now gives a nice historical review of what things were like only ten to fifteen years ago.It's a shame the book is out of print.