Dinny McMahon spent six years in Beijing as a financial reporter with The Wall Street Journal, where he focused on rising Chinese debt levels, urbanization, and the role of the country's state sector in its economy. Prior to that he was Shanghai-based reporter with Dow Jones Newswires, where he wrote about China's foreign exchange markets. In 2015, McMahon left China and The Wall Street Journal to take up a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a think tank in Washington DC. He was awarded the fellowship to write this book.
An engaging economy lesson: human stories are at the heart of every chapter and he draws on his contacts to bring this well-researched analysis to life * Belfast Telegraph * One of the clearest and most thorough statements of an argument often made about the country: that its government has relied on constant stimulus to keep growth strong, an addiction that is bound to backfire. Second, he comes closer than any previous writer to covering the Chinese economy as Michael Lewis, the hugely popular author of The Big Short, might do. His analysis is informed but accessible, animated by anecdotes and characters, some colourful, some verging on tragic . . . McMahon is among the most compelling of the many analysts who conclude that China's economic miracle will end painfully * The Economist *