Joseph Schumpeter's conceptions of entrepreneurship, innovation, and creative destruction have been hugely influential. He pioneered the study of economic development and of technological paradigm shifts and was a forerunner of the emerging field of evolutionary economics. He is not thought of as a theorist of credit-supercharged high-speed growth, but this is what he became in postwar Japan. As Mark Metzler shows in Capital as Will and Imagination, economists and planners in postwar Japan seized upon Schumpeter's ideas and put them directly to work.

The inflationary creation of credit, as theorized by Schumpeter, was a vital but mostly unrecognized aspect of the successful stabilization of Japanese capitalism after World War II and was integral to Japan's postwar success. It also helps to explain Japan's bubble, and the global bubbles that have followed it. The heterodox analysis presented in Capital as Will and Imagination goes beyond the economic history of postwar Japan; it opens up a new view of the core circuits of modern capital in general.

About the Author

Mark Metzler is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan.

Reviews

Metzler has produced an incisive work full of stimulating insights into the capitalist development process as well as new and challenging ways of thinking about Japan's economic performance since World War II.

-- Steven J. Ericson * Journal of Japanese Studies *

This richly detailed study of the financial roots of Japan's high-growth era and meditation on the high costs of the ensuing bubble collapse is highly recommended for not only students of Japanese financial history, but anyone interested in the role of states and banks in the future of world capitalism.

-- John Sagers * The Journal of Asian Studies *

While maintaining a theoretical emphasis on these Schumpeterian principles of economic growth, Metzler also gives us a rich description of how one economy, that of early post-war Japan, executed the Schumpeter.... In this analysis, Metzler displays a careful, thorough examination of sources.... It is refreshing to see a book that emphasizes the role of the Ministry of Finance (mof) and the Economic Planning units.

-- Tom Roehl * The Journal of Interdisciplinary History *

Capital as Will and Imaginationis a Schumpeterian guide to the postwar economic miracle in that the inflationarycreation of credit was theorized by Schumpeter (over a century ago!). Indeed, Metzlerpresents compelling reasons for why we should be paying attention to Schumpeter'sideas right now.Thought-provoking, intellectually curious, and at timesdownright challenging, Capital as Will and Imagination tests the reader's knowledgeand interpretation of the events that have come to characterize and define modernJapanese history. Replete with astute references and finely drawn observations, it is awork of great wisdom and intellect, a must for all those who seek to understand themiracle of Japan's postwar economic growth.

-- Simon James Bytheway * Momumenta Nipponica *


Awards
Winner of Runner Up, 2014 Professor Robert W. Hamilton Book.



Book Information
ISBN 9780801451799
Author Mark D. Metzler
Format Hardback
Page Count 320
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 25mm