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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 11, 1985
that law without being criticized for ethical callousness. How
ever•••the language of the act is so sweeping and ambiguous that
American firms turn down foreign business when they merely sus
pect that they could be charged for actions technically classifi
able as bribery. In a survey of 250 American companies, the
General Accounting Office found that 30 percent of the respon
dents engaged in foreign trade had lost business as a result of
the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
One of the most prominent economists today is George Gilder, author of such
books as WEALTH AND POVERTY and THE SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE. In the April 27
WALL STREET JOURNAL, Mr. Gilder wrote an article entitled "Imports Are Not
a Problem but a Cure." In it he stressed the incredibly interwoven econo
mies of Japan and America, and how disastrous it would be to disrupt this
relationship. Most of all, asks Gilder, why the sudden hew and cry over im
ports when the U.S. economy is humming along with millions of jobs having
been created during the current boom?
Many economists persist in predicting dire damage from deficits
in the U.s. budget and balance of payments despite the lack of
any significant evidence of serious malfunction. After a two
year period when the nation's businesses created some seven mil
lion jobs•••these economists nod sadly and speak of two million
jobs lost through the trade deficit.
After a record 33.2 percent rise in real capital outlays over a
two-year period--making U.S. plant and equipment newer on avera 9 e
than Japan's•••leading pundits and politicians speak
In
despair
"o'lti.s. competitiveness and urge drastic new protectionist laws
[which]•••threaten to poison the most important source of U.S.
� world recovery: The rising exchanges of goods, people and
ideas between the U.S. and Asia, particularly Japan.
On the simplest and most immediate level, the surging growth of
the u.s. economy stems in part from the availability of high
quality products, such as cars and VCRs, made in Japan and sold
here at ever more attractive prices•••• Many of the most highly
motivational products in America today--the goods that most en
hance the real value of after-tax income--come from Japan••••
More important still,•••far from inhibiting the expansion of U.S.
high technology, Japanese imperts, sold at ever lower prices,
helped lower costs and expand markets for computers and related
equipment that also dominated demand for U.S. parts. Without key
inputs from one another, neither the U.S. economy nor Japan's
could grow nearly as fast. Whether the more measurable parts of
these exchanges happen to balance out during any one period is of
no importance if both economies benefit.
Take, for example, the IBM personal computer, which rose from
nothing to approach a $7 billion business over the past three
years and was perhaps the exemplary product of the recovery. Its
success was made possible by about 5,000 software entrepreneurs,
led by Lotus; its most essential parts were sophisticated micro
processors and controllers from Intel, Motorola and Western Digi
tal.
But more than 60 percent of the other parts came from
abroad, mostly from Japan.