The Writing on the Wall focuses its discussion principally on the process of economic development in China and current reforms there, but Hutton also spills a lot of ink arguing that the US and Britain are in crisis, having deviated from enlightenment values and core elements of modernism, such as pluralism and the structures of civil society.
《惡兆》雖主要探討中國的經濟發展歷程與當前的改革極限，但亦用了相當篇幅，點出近年美、英兩國「背離」啟蒙思想價值與多元主義、公共體制等現代化核心後所將面臨的危機。