Time to Start Thinking

"Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking." -Sir Ernest Rutherford, winner of the Nobel Prize in Nuclear Physics

Time to Start Thinking is a book destined to spark debate among liberals and conservatives alike. Drawing on his decades of exceptional journalism and his connections in Washington and around the world, Luce advances a carefully constructed and controversial argument that America is losing its position at the top of the world's pecking order. He supports this argument with his interviews with key players in politics and business, from U.S. senators, senior White House officials, Fortune 100 chief executives, and many others, including Bill Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen.

Luce's central thesis is that America is sleepwalking into economic and geopolitical decline. In a tightly argued book, Luce turns his attention to a number of critical issues set to determine America's future: the changing structure of the U.S. economy, the continued polarization of American politics, the debilitating effect of the "permanent election campaign," the challenges involved in the overhaul of the country's public education system, the desperate situation facing America's middle class, and the health of American innovation in technology and business. His conclusion investigatesAmerica's dwindling options in a world where the pace is increasingly being set elsewhere. Luce turns particular attention to Washington-he identifies the city's insidious lobbying culture, the politicians' constant need to fund raise, and the lack of bipartisanship as key stumbling blocks to an effectively functioning political system.

As distressing as it is important, Time to Start Thinking presents anAmerica in economic, social, and political crisis. Those unwilling to face up to this reality may be tempted to blindly trust in American exceptionalism-but Luce argues that it is American pragmatism that will be the key to securing America's future, if it is to be secured.

"In a tradition stretching back to de Tocqueville, sympathetic foreigners are often the keenest observers of American life. Edward Luce is one such person. He paints a highly disturbing picture of the state of American society, and of the total failure of American elites to come to grips with the real problems facing the country. It rises far above the current political rhetoric by its measured reliance on facts rather than canned ideological posturing to reach its conclusions." -Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History andThe Last Man

"Time To Start Thinking is not only a wonderful tapestry of the current state of America, it provides a deeply insightful narrative on the origins of our current economic and political malaise. Ed Luce is a brilliant reporter who has spoken to everyone: CEOs and members of the cabinet, lobbyists and small town mayors, recent MBAs and unemployed teachers. In his acutely observed, often witty, and very humane portraits he succeeds converting the abstractions of economics and bringing them to life. This is a book that will transform the way you think of this country." -Liaquat Ahmed, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of The Lords of Finance