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A history of longand effortless success can be a dreadful handicap, but, if properly handled, itmay become a driving force. When the United States entered just such a glowingperiod after the end of the Second World War, it had a market eight timeslarger than any competitor, giving its industries unparalleled economies ofscale. Its scientists were the worlds best, its workers the most skilled.America and Americans were prosperous beyond the dreams of the Europeans andAsians whose economies the war had destroyed. It was inevitable that this primacy should have narrowed as othercountries grew richer. Just as inevitably, the retreat from predominance provedpainful. By the mid-1980s Americans had found themselves at a loss over theirfading industrial competitiveness. Some huge American industries, such asconsumer electronics, had shrunk or vanished in the face of foreigncompetition. By 1987 there was only one American television maker left, Zenith.Foreign-made cars and textiles were sweeping into the domestic market Americasmachine-tool industry was on the ropes. For a while it looked as though themaking of semiconductors, which America had which sat at the heart of the newcomputer age, was going to be the next casualty。 All of this caused a crisis of confidence. Americans stopped takingprosperity for granted. They began to believe that their way of doing businesswas failing, and that their incomes would therefore shortly begin to fall aswell. The mid-1980s brought one inquiry after another into the causes ofAmericas industrial decline. Their sometimes sensational findings were filledwith warnings about the growing competition from overseas。 | 
