The Michael Barry show fears and concerns about other nations. I was born in 70. So I grew up with

bomb drills where you get under your desk and it was real. The fear was real. The cold war was real.

The Russians, they were dark and ominous like Drago.

And it was a real threat that we took seriously. But then in the 80s, that threat morphed into

the emerging economy. And that economy was producing goods that were replacing American goods.

And they were high quality goods. They had a manufacturing process that an American dimming

management professor had taught them. They had a militaristic adherence to processes, no emotion,

execution. And it was really impressive what Japan was becoming. And it was a real fear for us

that the Japanese were going to supplant us as the world's superpower, economic superpower.

And then it all changed.

Japan had its lost decade as it's called, which is really three decades. Japan lost its

edge. It lost its momentum. During the time that Japan was introducing

America, it was introducing cars into America that were much more gas efficient.

Had a lot of creature comforts. And the quality was really good.

As that was happening with Honda and Toyota particularly,

Chinese goods were considered cheap and disposable.

Chinese made poor quality things you wouldn't want for anything.

The Japanese made much better quality. So the rivals for quality were the Germans,

the Japanese, and the Americans. In some industries, there was the Swedish and others, the Swiss.

But those were really where you saw the quality. Those three countries competing in the scale

of the United States were just dwarfed the other two. And then in the 90s, the South Koreans

started emerging. And they started making cheap electronics, like cars. I remember my

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