In 1897, rumours began circulating that celebrated US author Mark Twain had died. A newspaper reporter sent to investigate was famously told by Twain that ‘reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated’. More recently it is the US economy that is supposedly suffering from rigor mortis, but those ready to write an obituary for the world’s biggest economy could be equally wide of the mark.
Conventional wisdom sees it something like this: the future lies in China because it has lower wages, harder workers, better education, less debt and more investment. According to this version, the 2007–09 financial crisis was more than a serious downturn, it was the end of an era of US prosperity and dominance. While nobody can deny Chinese economic progress over the last 30 years, there are good reasons to believe that the USA will bounce back strongly.
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