I don't really see any mention of demographics in the article. The "boomer" swell explains a lot in all three of these economies (US, Japan, China). The US was

I don't really see any mention of demographics in the article. The "boomer" swell explains a lot in all three of these economies (US, Japan, China). The US was just about 13 years behind Japan in terms of the peak of the boomers hitting their mid 40s (maximum earnings and spending). The Japanese hit stall and decline in the early 90s, and the USA did pretty much the same thing on cue in the early 2000s. China's demographic decline is going to be especially sharp.