, Alan Grisfun, Sejong Book of Books, 2020

It is a history of capitalism in growth and development written by Grandfather Greenspan, who is considered the most successful Fed chairman. The main reason for writing this book seems to be the reason why the United States, which was devoted to the last chapter, is going to a recession, but even without that, it gives valuable insight to see what conditions put the country on the path to growth.

Of course, I think the part that says, “My Fed is not at fault. It’s all Bush and politicians’ fault” is a bit too much, but it doesn’t matter if it’s written by the person who chaired the Fed, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a mistake in translation, or maybe it’s because Halbe is old (I think it’s a mistake in translation), but there are some parts where the details such as the year, the year, and the person are a little wrong, but it doesn’t matter much to read.

The best part was that even in the United States, which adopted the most advanced capitalist system, the shareholder capitalist system, it was not achieved overnight, and even that was not a linear development, but it was possible to take a closer look at the various ups and downs. We can really look at how a growing new industrial country, the ups and downs in the process of getting on track, how it grew into a powerful country, and how it faced old age and decline and led to its creation after destruction.

Liberal democracy and its system of shareholder capitalism actually have a number of problems. The biggest problem lies in the growing sense of relative deprivation caused by the asset gap, and the growing gap between working and owning assets. As we follow the return on capital, due to the introduction of a natural globalization and optimized supply chain system, workers and small and medium-sized manufacturers in national countries face greater competitive pressure. Because this part has not been resolved properly, we are moving into an era of the end of globalization, a segmented world, an era of confrontation and war, and a era of class struggle to take away the pie of others by those armed with a zero-sum worldview.

Greenspan also did not mention a proper answer to these problems, but he clearly warns of the consequences of such a fragmented world, confrontation and war, and the struggle to take away others’ pies. We don’t know the correct answer, but if we don’t, we are warning that the result will be an era of ruin, retreat, descent, and stagnation at best. And unfortunately, as he warned, the world is flowing.

He says that from the standpoint of advocating for a liberal democratic system and a shareholder capitalist system, and the process by which that perspective is created – the culture – is the key driving force behind the growth of the United States. The biggest advantage of the shareholder capitalist system is that it wields the power of pure creative destruction. I would say more strictly, creation after destruction. Creation can exist only when there is destruction, and Greenspan says that the United States was a relatively well-accepted country of destruction to prepare for creation.

This is essentially the point of conflict with popular democracy. Even if we know that creation is possible only when there is destruction, who can easily accept it if the object of destruction is our own life. As Greenspan said, destruction is actually a direct visible damage, and the benefit of creation is an improvement that is not easily visible to everyone. People don’t pay attention to the improvement of their invisible lives, but they easily pay attention to visible destruction.

This is because the system of human nature was originally designed to be sensitive to damage. The shareholder capitalist system defies this human nature and utilizes the other nature of greed to enter the path of development and growth. The liberal democratic system gave us the means to resist the great-swelling popular sentiment in the name of mass democracy from the perspective of protecting individual rights and property rights.

Now we’re seeing a time when these tools and methods are falling back and falling apart, even in the United States. What should we do? Our thoughts deepen.

Books written from this perspective include William Bernstein’s The History of the World of Wealth and Philip Babyon’s The Power of Creative Destruction.

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a good book to read together

William Bernstein Forest Books 2024.01.15.
The Power of Creative Destruction Philippe Agiong, Celine Antonin, Simon Wünell Eco-Livre 2022.06.30.