Word: tradings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Fujitsu, Japan's largest computer firm, has often come under attack in the West for its trade practices. U.S. rivals have accused Fujitsu of a lowball pricing policy that keeps foreign firms out of the Japanese market. But last week a howl of protest went up in Japan when Fujitsu tried to carry out such pricing at home. The uproar occurred after Hiroshima's city government sought bids to design a new computer system. Seven firms offered to do the work at prices ranging from $2,000 to $201,000. But the winner was Fujitsu, which submitted...
Last week another eminent employee was cleaning out his desk. Robert Bernstein, who in 23 years as head of Random House helped build it into the largest trade-book publisher in the U.S., abruptly announced his resignation. It was only three years ago that he said, "I want to be a publisher until I'm carried out." Bernstein, 66, insists he had no falling out with Newhouse. But to industry insiders the decision seemed all the more sudden because no replacement was named for the high-powered position...
Seattle in fact has achieved a stunning comeback from the "Boeing bust" of the early 1970s, when the aircraft manufacturer slashed its work force from 105,000 to 38,000. Since the mid-1980s, the region's industries have diversified into computers, new fisheries and Pacific Rim trade. Unemployment has fallen to a 20-year low of 4.5%. Now business is so brisk at Boeing that not even a record-high work force of 110,000 is enough to meet production schedules. Last month 57,000 machinists went on strike at four Boeing plants, demanding a larger share of company...
...each country sets about easing central economic controls, new tensions appear. Since the 1950s, the Moscow-based Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, known as Comecon, has brokered the bulk of East bloc trade. Comecon encourages individual countries to specialize in the manufacture of specific goods and sets production goals to meet the bloc's needs and those of other members, including Cuba and Viet Nam. Since all trade is accounted for in rubles, Comecon has built a wall around itself that promotes inefficiency and the production of shoddy goods...
Hungary and Poland, which are eager to wed their fortunes to the prosperous economies of the West, have begun to explore bilateral trade arrangements. Budapest, in particular, nurtures hopes of eventually joining the European Community. That remains years away, but a halfway step might be membership in the European Free Trade Association, which has special tariff agreements with the European Community. Such moves would come at the expense of traditional Comecon commitments. Given the glue that binds Eastern Europe -- including everything from heavily subsidized Soviet energy supplies and raw materials to inefficient plants unable to compete in world markets...