U.S. Memories: who is the loser?

Article Abstract:

US Memories, the American consortium which was to rescue the US computer industry from control by a Japanese memory chip cartel, died in the week of Jan 15, 1990. There was not enough financial backing. US Memories Pres Sanford L. Kane sees the failure as an example of US managerial myopia. But Gary Saxonhouse, a specialist on the Japanese economy at the Univ of Michigan, sees the matter as a triumph of business logic over chauvinist passion: high-tech manufacturers are willing to play an us-versus-them game when the public is paying, but not when their own money is at issue. When numbers are added up, points out Saxonhouse, dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips are important, but high stakes for corporations do not necessarily translate into high stakes for the economy. Saxonhouse concludes that for want of a DRAM, the nation will not be lost.

Integrated circuits, College faculty, Beliefs, opinions and attitudes, United States economic conditions, University of Michigan, Consortia, DRAM (Dynamic random access memory), Magnetic media, Magnetic storage media, DRAM, Supply, Failure, s, Consortium, Kane, Sanford L., Michigan, University of, Saxonhouse, Gary

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Economic scene: semiconductor semi-success

Article Abstract:

The new semiconductor trade agreement between the United States and Japan removes the costly price restrictions of the old 1986 agreement and also the retaliatory tariffs that were imposed on Japanese microprocessor manufacturers for not employing fair competitive practices in the past. Some analysts merely view the new deal as a further indication that the US semiconductor industry has lost its ability to turn innovative design and advanced technology into business profits and domestic employment. Some analysts believe that the new agreement still contains a double standard that allows American manufacturers to sell nearly obsolete microprocessor technology for little more than cost, and at the same time prevents foreign manufacturers from doing the same in the American market.

Management, Japan, Laws, regulations and rules, Microprocessor, CPUs (Central processing units), International trade, Microprocessors, Market share, Japanese foreign relations, United States foreign relations, Commercial treaties, Trade agreements, National Government, Government Regulation, Cooperative Agreements

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The uneasy case for subsidy of high-technology efforts

Article Abstract:

Lagging productivity and increasing competition from Japan has led many free-market economists to support government subsidies of high-technology industries. Theoretically, if one country dominates the production of a product, other industries that rely on, but do not produce, the product can be negatively affected by the pricing and distribution strategy of the country that does produce it. This argument is sometimes used to support government intervention in US memory chip production, on which the US supercomputer industry is so dependent. Economists say there are too many flaws in the theory to make it viable. Government supported research in Japan and Europe is nevertheless a strong argument in favor of US subsidies.

Finance, Industrial research, High technology, Research and Development, Government Funding, Government aid

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