Damn.  I didn&#x27;t realize their debt was that high.<p>Interestingly, the U.S. outlook is brighter today than China&#x27;s, in contrast with a mere couple of years ago when China looked destined to be the dominant economy.<p>There are a couple of reasons why.  The U.S. has enormous energy reserves and will in the long run emerge as the major energy exporter in the world, helping reverse the perennial balance of trade deficit to a surplus, potentially $500 billion to a trillion annually.<p>Also, Chinese wages are rising even as manufacturing technologies such as 3-D printing and other software-driven approaches are helping bring factories back to the West.  The Chinese model of cheap outsourcing is just about tapped out or will be in the next ten years.