The chart below shows the growth in GDP over a 20 plus year period.   It illuminates why China is growing so powerfully economically, why the US continues to be the number one economy and why Japan has slipped in relevance from an economic perspective over the past 20 years.  .  China’s economy is 43 times larger, the US is more than 3 times larger and Japan’s is maybe 20% larger or stagnated.

The point that the chart also shows is that with a growing economy many negatives can be overcome.   China is building new industries, powering its way into alternative energy and rivaling many industrialized countries in its manufacturing prowess.   While reviewing the chart if we think about the US attitude during the period it was very positive, “can do” while the trend up ticked and pretty negative during flatter and downward portions of the chart.  The same is true for China, the period up through the early 1990’s was one of cautious optimism and as the curve became steeper the Chinese self-confidence seemed to grow!  In Japan during the same period, the Japanese went from thinking they could solve any problem to doubting themselves about everything with minimal expectations for the future according to recent polls.

So, the conclusion we should draw from the above is the one that Bill Clinton’s campaign coined during his 1992 bid for the presidency, “It’s the economy stupid!”  Our leaders need to focus on propelling the economy more, rather than the current distractions such as Apple legally minimizing its taxes!