Five years until China is No. 1 and passes U.S.?

Yes, if you go by purchasing power parity, it will be just five years until the Chinese economy overtakes the U.S. as the world's largest.

As either Obama's second term, or some lame-o GOPer's first one, winds down, the Cold War "who lost China" arguments will be nothing compared to the "who lost TO China" ones.

On the surface, that one is easy — U.S. hypercapitalism, offshoring jobs like no other Western economy, lost and lost to China. One the move started with manufacturers, it was accelerated in fair part due to the push of WallyWorld, followed by Dolar General, etc.

But, is the Chinese economy that "real," vs. "hollow" or "Potemkin"? The article linked above doesn't address that, but from corruption on high-speed rail to man other issues, there's a good argument that this is exactly the case — bubbles abound everywhere, and, if PPP as a measurement comes to the surface, so will more of those bubbles.

But, the story does refer obliquly to China possibly "blowing a tire" and notes that will set back the denouement by only a decade.

But, what about Peak Oil? If it becomes too expensive to import the cheaper crap, at least, from China, where does that leave its economy? Slumping more, but of little help to us. Jobs won't return to the U.S. from China; rather, at the risk of druglords, they'll go to Mexico.