• About this Book
• Read an Excerpt

Written by Micheline Maynard

• Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Business
• On Sale: October 20, 2009
• Price: $26.00
• ISBN: 978-0-385-52052-2 (0-385-52052-2)

about this book

As unemployment rises, the American auto industry crumbles, and more and more jobs continue to be outsourced to India, China, Mexico, and the like, the fate of the American worker has never looked quite so grim. As a result, many Americans, deeply protective of the few jobs that still exist, increasingly regard globalization as a threat to our economy and our way of life. Yet, as NY Times senior business correspondent Micheline Maynard argues, these fears are misguided, because they overlook the positive effects of globalization on our economy and our society.

As Maynard shows In The Selling of the American Economy, when foreign-owned companies build plants and factories in states like Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina and Indiana, they not only create hundreds and thousands of high pay jobs and secure employment in an increasingly unstable economy, they also strengthen communities, teach American workers new skills, foster innovation, and introduce new ideas and technologies to the marketplace. For despite the lingering xenophobia that often colors Americans' perception of foreign investment, the fact is that foreign companies have been such an enormous boon to states and communities - pumping millions of dollars into regional and local economies across the country — lawmakers actively vie and compete for the right to house these companies within their boundaries.

An engaging narrative based on extensive reporting and hundreds of fascinating interviews with government officials, community leaders, as well as managers, top executives, and assembly-line workers at companies like EADS, BMW, Sony, Honda, and Toyota, In The Selling of the American Economy offers a completely fresh and unique perspective on this new paradigm in the American workplace, and how it is playing out within our communities, our states, and in Washington. At a time when the need for intervention in the American market has never been greater, Maynard tells the untold story of why if, as some critics contend, our economy is being sold to the highest foreign bidder, this is very good news for us all.

“Micheline Maynard's provocative examination of growing foreign ownership of American business will enrage nativists, challenge globalists and prompt everyone to think deeply about the reasons that American needs foreign investment to create high-paying jobs.”
- David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Free Lunch and Perfectly Legal

“At a time when the United States has never been more connected to the global marketplace, nor more dependent on capital from abroad, Micheline Maynard makes a deeply compelling case why foreign companies  investing in our country are so critical to America, including all of its communities and workers. This important book should be read by top officials of the Obama administration and by every senator, congressman, governor and mayor-- and by anyone else interested in our country’s future.”
 - Jeffrey E. Garten, Juan Trippe professor of international trade and finance and former dean, Yale School of Management and Former Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, Clinton Administration

"This insightful book powerfully demonstrates the positive benefits that US citizens realize from foreign investment in our country: new jobs, improved communities and more competition. The proponents of protectionism and isolationism should be stopped in their tracks by the compelling narrative."
-Douglas Steenland, former CEO, Northwest Airlines

“While American companies globalize, foreign companies Americanize, transforming our landscape.  As Micheline Maynard makes compellingly clear in this vivid account, global firms have rescued companies, restored jobs, and revitalized communities in the U.S. — and have brought better ways of doing business that American companies may ignore only at their peril.”  
— Michael Useem, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

"Offers a wealth of analysis explaining how foreign companies investing in the United States have long benefited America: through jobs, capital investment, and many other activities. Amidst the longest U.S. recession since the Great Depression, from which recovery will require creating good jobs at good wages, government and business leaders alike have much to learn from her insights."
--Matthew J. Slaughter, Signal Companies Professor of Management and Associate Dean, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

“Micheline Maynard is the rare scholar who is a journalist, and journalist who is a scholar. The Selling of the American Economy is a compelling treatise on the positive impact of foreign direct investment on the American economy. Given the flight of American industry to low labor countries for manufacturing, engineering, software development and about anything, Maynard reminds us that it is too late to put up the fences and keep the foreigners out, and would be extremely unwise even if we could. Once again she gives us a look in the mirror that is ahead of its time.
- Jeffrey K. Liker, Professor, University of Michigan, and bestselling author of The Toyota Way