Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.
Perry Anderson
Headline:Kobe Steel shares plunge as scandal widens
Sub-headline: Japanese group adds steel and specialist metals to list of questionable products
…
Kobe Steel, Japan’s third-largest steelmaker and a supplier to global companies including Boeing, Toyota and Nissan, admitted at the weekend to falsifying inspection data on an estimated 20,000 tonnes of metals shipped to about 200 customers in the year to August 2017.
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Aluminium and copper products have also been affected. Kobe Steel sold metal that failed to meet quality standards promised to clients in products from cars to aircraft and has warned that the problems in certification could date back 10 years.
https://www.ft.com/content/6077dad2-ae47-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130
Headline: Five questions on Kobe Steel and quality controls
Sub-headline: Corporate Japan’s reputation takes another blow after false certification comes to light
https://www.ft.com/content/d0da2062-ae62-11e7-beba-5521c713abf4
Call this final entry a kind of pseudo-apologetic, for a documented and longstanding failure of a manufacturer to meet the standards set by its customers. What should a customer expect from a supplier?
Also, the regular reader of this newspaper, might just judge that the concept of The Self-Correcting Market, has again proven itself to be a self-serving myth, postulated by the Mt. Pelerin Philosopher Kings. Or should the reader judge that this collective of Political Romantics were just the maladroit apologists for Robber Capital?
Old Socialist
