Are Austrian School Economists The New Demings of Asia?

By James Santagata
Principal Consultant, SiliconEdge

As many by now know one of the forefathers of modern quality control was the American W. Edwards Deming whose focus on 
statistical process & quality control is nothing short of legendary in Asia and particularly in Japan.

How legendary? 

Well, within Japanese industry, Deming is often considered to be one of the main catalysts and key visionaries that helped enable Japan to not only recover from WWII but to then quickly ascend from its reputation as a manufacturer of cheap plastic trinkets and shoddy goods to an economic powerhouse known for its production of top quality wares and precision goods.

But here's the rub. Or double rub if you will.

Deming was an American and yet his message fell mostly on deaf ears to an anything but receptive American audience -- this "deafness" was particularly obvious within the disastrous, shoddy-products-galore American auto industry during the mid to late 1970's. 


Conversely, Deming found Japan to be very open to this new ideas and he found that they embraced him as well as his processes and philosophy.

Now here's a parallel I see to Deming today.

When I was in college, I took as many economics (and English) courses as I could, coming close to effectively earning a minor in economics although you couldn't officially earn one if you had a major in business studies as they were "rationing" classes due to them being "impacted" (i.e., oversold).

In any event, my economics professors, at least publicly appeared to be 100% Keynesians with not an Austrian Economist in the bunch, although perhaps one or two in the closet.

Austrian economics has been gaining traction, since at least the mid -1990's and accelerating after the Dot Com/Dot Con Crash, yet even today, they are for the most part, still are a rarity in America academia.

What I have noticed, though, among the Austrian school economists I've come across is that they are:
(a) very active in Asia (particularly with the developing economies).

and

(b) well received in these countries.


It makes me wonder. 

Will these folks, individually or collectively, have the same impact as Deming did, except in the economic sense on fiscal and monetary planning and policy?

Time will tell.

As a quick addendum: Military Strategy and foresight by Homer Lea.

Another parallel to this would also be within Military Strategy and foresight of the often forgotten Homer Lea. His The Valor of Ignorance (1909), foretold of war between America and Japan while his The Day of the Saxon (1912) foretold threats to the Anglosphere from both Teutons (Germans) and Slavs (Russians, albeit under control of non-Slavs).