One to One with Bill Goodman:
Ted Fishman
premiered September 21, 2008
Ted Fishman discusses his book China Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World on this edition of One to One with Bill Goodman.
Fishman, a former floor trader and member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has lived in several Asian countries and witnessed China’s astonishing economic boom close up. The Chinese are building a massive urban industrial infrastructure and have become top consumers of wood, garments, furniture, textiles, cement, and many other products and materials. China’s economy is quickly becoming the largest in the world, with $2 trillion in its foreign exchange reserves. Roads, power plants, and other necessities are being built extremely rapidly to accommodate the 1.5 million to 2 million people who move from rural China to urban areas each month.
However, Fishman says, China’s growth may be “the world’s biggest mixed blessing.” More than 80 million Chinese have not benefited from the country’s economic surge and are living in absolute poverty, giving China one of the largest wealth gaps in the world. And while U.S. consumers benefit from China’s growth, saving an average of hundreds of dollars a year on Chinese-manufactured goods, American companies are sending their production jobs to China. Meanwhile, the environmental issues confronting China include devastating air and water pollution, toxic rivers, and landslides.
In the interview with Goodman, Fishman offers his suggestions to American businesses that want to operate in China and to the future U.S. president about how to develop a relationship with the new superpower.
