This book addresses the crucial question of America's adjustment to changes in the international economy. It examines policies that will deal effectively with the continuing erosion of the U.S. share of exports and production in world markets and explores in particular the debate on "industrial policy."

What is the cause of the American steel industry's deplorable situation today? Troubled in many areas—competition from imports, technology implementation, cost and utilization of raw materials, investment policy, philosophy of management, and union attitudes, to name only a few—can the industry survive? These are the questions Dr. Kiers confronts in this book. Unless answers can be found, he warns, the result will be further decline and, finally, bankruptcy or nationalization. Unwilling to accept either possibility, Dr. Kiers challenges the steel industry to achieve a rebirth he sees as feasible only through a hard-nosed, realistic approach, an insistence on innovation, and a willingness to apply discipline to every facet of steel making. Dr. Kiers presents an in-depth analysis of Japan's steel industry, compares it with the U.S. industry, and discusses U.S. technology and import problems with reference to Japan. He then inventories the factors responsible for the current problems and lays the groundwork for a new start, going on to point out that the difficulties faced by the steel industry may be a portent of what will happen to other industries unless they, too, reassess both labor and management attitudes and make radical changes.

*Updated edition with a new foreword on the Trump administration's trade policy* The vast benefits promised by the supporters of globalization, and by their own government, have never materialized for many Americans. In Failure to Adjust Edward Alden provides a compelling history of the last four decades of US economic and trade policies that have left too many Americans unable to adapt to or compete in the current global marketplace. He tells the story of what went wrong and how to correct the course. Originally published on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Alden’s book captured the zeitgeist that would propel Donald J. Trump to the presidency. In a new introduction to the paperback edition, Alden addresses the economic challenges now facing the Trump administration, and warns that economic disruption will continue to be among the most pressing issues facing the United States. If the failure to adjust continues, Alden predicts, the political disruptions of the future will be larger still.