Steel And The State: Government Intervention And Steel’s Structural Crisis

The provenance of this book is not entirely clear, but some of the research was paid for by leading American steel companies and the analysis and writing seem to have been largely in the hands of a law firm. Nevertheless, it is a useful collection of data on policies of major countries toward carbon steel and the resulting problems. "Pervasive intervention" by governments is called the "principal cause" of lasting global overcapacity. U.S. policy is correctly said to be primarily reactive and lacking in a clear view of national interest. The authors' prescription for the future is for international negotiations to "ameliorate distortions" and let market forces play as far as possible.