Not the happiest book, and the author misses some essentials.
Her points: look at "the 3 factors" labor, capital, and productivity. In all three, Asia looks good.
Labor- includes their skills and the competative advantage. In the west, it is supposedly our technical skills. The US and UK are really messing up here. I guess she has never heard of Germany.
Capital- In the west, it is diffuse. In China, it is all controlled by the government. So if they want to deploy it to fix a problem, they can. She is overly relying on central planning. Not that this is totally wrong, but diffuse does not mean not available
Productivity-- Economists say that productivity growth is the biggest single thing driving economic growth. Asia is making huge gains, the west only small gains. She then argues that the "Is this because "they" are using our technology?" argument is irrelevant. She is correct. Who the heck cares where the gains are coming from. Most of the tools I use to increase my productivity weren't made by me, that is the nature of social specialization
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