Danger in the Comfort Zone

9

The New Paradigm

Since the mid-1970s, we have tumbled from our perch of economic dominance. Although it hurts, the fall has the potential of galvanizing us to new ways of thinking and working that will serve us far better in the 1990s. Indeed that’s what happened. For a discussion of the constructive outcome of America’s economic crisis of the 1980s, see Chapter 16.

The 1980s began with the deepest postwar recession we ever had. We had double-digit inflation and interest rates. OPEC tried to strangle the economy. Many manufacturers struggled to survive and many didn’t. Our budget deficit and our trade deficit were alarming. Competition increased on all sides at a frightening rate, and old-line companies, long dominant in their industry, found ...