Given the hearings on Capitol Hill about American banking practices it is a perfect time to add the practices of the Japanese to potential hearings.  They have been active in banking as well as the automobile industry and the redoing of U.S patent and intellectual property laws.

In the late 80's every time the issue was raised about Japanese business practices the point was always made that it was in the best interest of the U.S. to work with Japan because they owned so much of the U.S. debt.  That argument will not hold today, not because of the debt, but because of Japan's massive invasion of American business.

Everywhere we look, the movies, automobiles, textiles, auto suppliers there is a Japan implant on the business.  We have essentially lost the textile industry out of the U.S.  The movie industry (which is our culture) is dominated by the Japanese.  Nissan, Toyota and Honda are trying very hard to totally dominate and destroy the American auto industry. 

The Japanese have moved into the banking industry as well as the housing industry.  A recent lecturer from The Maryland Center For Leadership in Global Enterprise explained that 75 percent of the securities of Fannie Mae were held by the Japanese which gave them a major role in all the policies in the housing industry and they could cause the problems on inflating the industry. 

The story on the banking today with foreign influence has its origins in the late 1980’s from the Washington Post Weekly labeled, "Putting Their Country On The Block" with a subtitle of "Baby Bankers'.

The story was about young naive bankers just out of college who were engaged in Tokyo teaching the Japanese how to take over American business.  The story by Fred Hiatt called the young bankers the "pioneers of a new world economic order."  The young bankers were helping the Japanese to channel their dollars into buildings, factories and other assets.

One young banker returned to the U.S. and stated that the U.S. and Japanese methods were two different systems.  He said, "They can buy us but we cannot buy them."  The young banker expressed fear for America's future.  He explained, "They're accumulating our currency while we buy and buy and buy Japanese goods."  "Someday they could call us on it."

That is exactly what is happening to the banking system today, whether it is Japanese or American. The system is out of control.  An article by Edward Klein called "The Shadow Warriors” explained how deals were done on mergers and acquisitions.  It quoted the chief lobbyist for Sony at that time, Chris Wada, who stated, "From now on the major issue between America and Japan is not going to be trade.  The issue is going to be direct investment."  The article stated the targets are financial-service companies, chemical companies, auto-parts companies, food processors and distributors." 

In 1989 Dr. Russell Means, MIT, testified before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and stated, "Electronics communication is the fundamental economic infrastructure of the information age."  He compared the "communication highways and what they will do to shape America to our roads and canals in transportation from an earlier time and the role they played in shaping America.  The "communication highways" would do the same thing for shaping the country today in the ability to communicate and they have.

The mergers and acquisitions and auto-parts companies also impacted the American auto industry.  Slowly the auto-suppliers were acquired and moved to the south where the Japanese built auto plants with American tax dollars.  This invasion was led by Nissan which first made its appearance in 1958 in the U.S. as Datsun which manufactured a sub-compact car. 

The foreign companies, Nissan included, are pushing the fact of manufacturing in the U.S. and their employment of Americans to show they are contributing to the U.S. Actually Nissan with its plant at Canton, MS is living out of the American taxpayer's pocket. 

It was surprising then for me to learn the difference in domestic content of automobiles between the foreign automakers and the American automakers. 

U.S. automakers spent approximately $148 billion on U.S. parts last year, "making them among the largest buyers of U.S. steel, rubber and semiconductors" according to the "Level Field Institute", a non-profit organization of retired auto workers who are working to educate the public on the role the auto industry plays in the economy and the country. Their slogan is "What you drive drives America".

The American Big 3 automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, employed 569,000 U.S. workers.  The Big 3 used more than twice as much domestic content in their autos as the foreign automakers, including those built in the U.S.  The Institute explained that there is a big difference between 74 percent average of domestic content used by the Big Three vs. 34 percent of domestic content used by foreign automakers last year. 

They would have spent $49 billion less than the American companies in the U.S. and that minus $49 billion would have cost 189,000 American auto parts workers their jobs.  Each auto parts worker supports 4.7 others so those lost sales would have cost 1 million U.S. jobs.

Another issue is patents.  The Level Field Institute stated, "Today's patents will have a big impact on whether tomorrow's best jobs remain here in the U.S.  Fortunately, automakers invest more in R&D than nearly any other industry and Ford, GM, and Chrysler invest approximately 80 percent of their spending here in the U.S. for the worldwide industry.

The Institute further states "that while the U.S. has lost many manufacturing jobs, advanced manufacturing jobs (on transmission and engineers) are likely to remain.  Today's patents will also have a big impact on whether tomorrow's best jobs remain here in the U.S.

Patents in an industry create jobs which benefits working Americans in many ways.  It is also on the shop floor where the second and third generation of technology and innovations are developed that in turn create new jobs and secures the manufacturing base.

Since those wild days of planning and moving on outsourcing jobs during the Reagan Administration, we have now reached the level of only 11 percent of the U.S. manufacturing base remaining.  That is hardly the America which was known as a great manufacturing country in our earlier years and after World War II when we controlled 56 percent of the world market share.  That came from having a strong manufacturing base.

The drop since 1989 has been rapid.  At that time, Okio Morita former Chairman of Sony, stated in a speech in New York that the U.S. was down to 52 percent of its manufacturing base and to be a manufacturing country we would have to reverse it.  That has not happened.  The attack on our auto industry by the Japanese and on the patent system all contribute to a weakened manufacturing base. 

It is not surprising that the Japanese attacked the U.S. patent system which protected the small inventor and was the secret of making the U.S. a great economic power.  By attacking the patent system to weaken it, the Japanese did two things at once.  They injured the U.S. auto system which relies on patents to cover their new and old technology, and Japan also weakened the U.S. economy and accelerated the loss of our technology at the same time.

There are hearings in Congress on the banking system.  It is time to have them on the auto industry, particularly Nissan with its retitling and rolling back the odometers on a fleet of over 50 cars.  Their lawyer stated on letterhead that "this was a common procedure then."  There is no common procedure of cheating by a manufacturer on the titles (MSO's) of cars and rolling back the odometers.  With the attitude of their lawyer what else has the company done and how does it affect the auto industry and our taxpayers.

It is long overdue for Congress to examine the practices of the foreign automakers, particularly those of the Japanese companies.

Mike Biras

mbiras64862@mypacks.net