Industrial Policy: A Solution in Search of a Problem.

Evidence from the 1970s does not support the view that the United States is "deindustrializing." Nor is there evidence that, in periods of normal (nonrecession) economic conditions, American labor and capital cannot successfully make the gradual but inevitable transition from older to newer industries and occupations. There is no need for a new `industrial policy" under which the federal government attempts to influence industrial structure by some combination of "picking the winners" and "protecting the losers." Industrial policy is not the secret of Japanese industrial success. And in the American political and governmental structure, such a policy would almost surely do much more harm than good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]