This is a book about Washington Consensus capitalism and the controversies its encroachment causes in Japan and Germany. Many people in both those countries share the assumptions dominant today in Britain and America--that managers should be intent solely on creating shareholder value and that shareholders' financial logic alone should determine who buys what company on the stock exchange. That way efficiency (and hence global welfare) will be maximized.
The Japanese and German advocates of full-bloodied market capitalism are not having it all their own way, however. In both countries...