Paperback review: Time to Start Thinking, By Edward Luce

From the FT's chief Washington correspondent, this gloomy but absorbing view of US prospects combines interviews with sobering statistics ranging from education (twice as many are studying MBAs than engineering) to railways (Obama is investing $8 billion compared to China's $200 billion).

Taking a pessimistic forecast for China and an optimistic one for the US, China's GDP will be a quarter higher by 2030. Moreover, the forces dividing the US economy into winners and losers (the same thing is happening here) are in their “relatively early stages”.