Post-war period a capitalism golden age?

I was going to write a piece refuting a piece in the National Post today (reprinted from the New Republic), but tonight when I finally had the time I discover that the Post’s own Peter Foster beat me to it.

One other point I’d like to make that Foster didn’t cover had to do with Judis’ subheadline:

Try as we might, we’ll never be able to recreate the Golden Age of capitalism that lasted from 1945 to 1970

Umm.  Small problem – how could the period from 1945 through 1970 be considered the golden age of capitalism?  In Europe, the UK and Canada, socialist leanings became government policy and governments in these nations set themselves up for the doom that came in the 1970s and later (and continue today in Europe…)  This so-called golden age only really existed in America, and even there it was distorted by historical luck.  In 1945, the United States was the only significant industrial producer on Earth.  Everyone else had had their industrial capabilities destroyed by war.  Germany, France, the UK, Japan, China, Russia were basket cases of post-war reconstruction.

If those nations wanted to buy something, they bought it from America.  They had no real choice.  As the UK, Germany and Japan rebuilt, they began to compete with America, but at no time prior to 1970 did they have significant economic power.

Also, the post-war period was one of government intervention in the economy through high tariffs left over from the 1930s, and artificially fixed exchange rates care of Bretton Woods.

Only to an American could the 1945-1970 period be considered a golden age – and even for America it turned out to be bad – GM, Ford and Chrysler didn’t have to learn to be efficient.  And when the Volkwagens and Toyotas of the world really arrived in the 1970s and 1980s, they weren’t ready.  And many other American firms couldn’t compete using American workers, because they had had it too easy in the post-war period.

Some Golden Age…