According to BlueScope Steel … business, governments, industry associations and unions need to share responsibility for its recent decision to reduce (by 50%) Port Kembla’s production capacity.

However, this attempt to sheet home blame serves only to deflect attention from the more fundamental (and structural) changes occurring within the manufacturing sector as a whole.

Within his new book “The Next Convergence”, Nobel laureate economist Michael Spence makes some telling forecasts.

In his view … developing economies like China, India and Brazil (which house about 60% of the world’s population) will reach “advanced status” by 2050-60.

And the current problems facing the West — excess debt, over-consumption and poor banking practices — are not merely a cyclical aberration. [Read more…]