Check out this balanced, insightful and cautious piece on China?? economy in Bizweek. It?? hard to get through the hype on China these days and this piece does just that. It?? written by two of the best journalists I know??ete Engardio and Dexter Roberts.

We really need some balance in our view of the ??ise of the rest?as Fareed Zakaria puts the decline of the US. At the very least, we need to understand that there is nothing inevitable about the rise and fall of nations or empires. Just in the past half century, we’ve seen the rise and breakup of the Soviet communist empire and the rise and stagnation of Japan. “Europe” has risen—and stopped, poised for a possible fall. The OPEC nations of the Middle East once looked like they would dominate the globe. Now don’t. Brazil is moving up fast—for the second time in a century. Ditto for Turkey.

As for the US, the first book I did was editing The Decline of US Power—in 1980-off a cover story I did with a team at Business Week in 1979. A lot happened in the following decades.

Culture, demographics, currency all play key roles that are often less understood than technology, exports, shiny architecture and infrastructure.