CAN'T HAVE A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS WHEN THERE'S ONLY ONE:

That decline in total factor productivity -- a rough measure of growth due to technological and organizational innovation -- is particularly noteworthy given China's massive program of industrial subsidy. From that Economist piece: "There is evidence that China's heavy-handed intervention is becoming increasingly ineffective. Total factor productivity growth in China in recent years has been a third of what it was before the 2008 global financial crisis. Productivity has also slowed in other countries, but the World Bank, in a recent book about Chinese innovation, notes that China's slowdown has been unusually sharp." 

Or as The Wall Street Journal's Greg Ip wrote of China last year, "... the country's state-led growth model is running out of gas. ... Absent a change in direction, China may never become rich."

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