Time To Start Thinking

On its present course, the US faces a world of rising new countries that will compete with it ever more fiecely as its own power is declining. In order to slow and improve this steady leakage of power, the US must change course internationally, economically and domestically. It must also restructure to remain the world's most competitive economy. And it must address quality of life issues and fairness at home.

But American politics is broken - competing forces and interests have led to stasis. With change so tough, where now for a country where the middle classes are suffering as they have never suffered before, the pensions crisis is growing, the deficit out of sight, and radicalism waiting in the wings?

“This is as good a diagnosis of America's failings as you will get - Sunday Times”

Edward Luce is a graduate of Oxford University in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He has worked for the Financial Times since 1995 with a one-year break to work in Washington, DC as the speechwriter to Larry Summers, the final US Treasury Secretary of the Clinton administration. He was the Financial Times Washington bureau chief from 2006 to 2010.

'Not only a wonderful tapestry of the current state of America, it provides a deeply insightful narrative of the origins of our current economic and political malaise' Liaquat Ahamed, author of Lords of Finance America is a nation in long-term economic and geopolitical decline, and in this incisive and highly engaging book, Edward Luce looks at why, and where the country can go from here. Drawing on interviews with business and political leaders, from Bill Gates to ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, as well as ordinary teachers and workers, and covering areas from education and healthcare to politics, business and innovation, Luce delivers a brilliant analysis of the world's sole remaining superpower. 'Ranges far and wide . . . Luce has spoken to a terrific array of characters . . . Best of all are his vivid portraits of Americans struggling to get by' Mark Damazer, Financial Times 'A carefully balanced and often startlingly evocative analysis' John Gray, Observer 'Sober, clever, measured . . . What is so impressive about Luce's diagnosis of American decline is the quiet, methodical compilation of damning facts . . . At the heart is the story of a nation that, fattened by affluence, fell for its own propaganda' Dominic Sandbrook, Literary Review

On its present course, the US faces a world of rising new countries that will compete with it ever more fiecely as its own power is declining. In order to slow and improve this steady leakage of power, the US must change course internationally, economically and domestically. It must also restructure to remain the world's most competitive economy. And it must address quality of life issues and fairness at home.But American politics is broken - competing forces and interests have led to stasis. With change so tough, where now for a country where the middle classes are suffering as they have never suffered before, the pensions crisis is growing, the deficit out of sight, and radicalism waiting in the wings?

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