But is China really going to be another superpower? "I doubt it," writes John Pomfret, the former Beijing bureau chief of The Washington Post. "So often, our perceptions of the place have more to do with how we look at ourselves than with what’s actually happening over there. Worried about the U.S. education system? China’s becomes a model. Fretting about our military readiness? China’s missiles pose a threat. Concerned about slipping U.S. global influence? China seems ready to take our place."

This is not a bed time story: Is the U.S. Banking System Safe? Scary analysis by James Quinn, Senior Director of Strategic Planning, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization, speculates The New York Times.

Externalities in the Classroom: How Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone’s Kids.

If you have 20 minutes: At the 2007 EG conference, Kevin Kelly shares a fun stat: The World Wide Web, as we know it, is only 5,000 days old. Now, Kelly asks, how can we predict what’s coming in the next 5,000 days?