How the West was Lost by Dambisa Moyo Allen Lane, HK$255
How the West Was Lost will sell, but mostly on the strength of Dambisa Moyo's first book, Dead Aid, which argued that foreign handouts to Africa have harmed rather than helped it. This time, she focuses on economic shifts transforming the world, arguing that the West has given away its lead and, to save itself, must adopt radical solutions, including overhauling its tax systems to encourage savings and correcting policies that have misallocated capital, labour and technology. The US government, Moyo charges, has convinced Americans the best way to save is by owning a house, which led to over-investment in housing stock and a bubble. Readers familiar with writing about the financial tsunami and the rise of emerging economies will nod at much of the content of the book, in which Moyo also addresses the West's 'lackadaisical attitude' towards science and engineering (China produces 14 times as many engineers as Britain, she writes). If the book seems hurried it's probably because it is thin on analysis, although Moyo sticks her neck out on one prediction: if the US continues on its path, she writes, in a few decades it will become a socialist welfare state.