Which Country Has the World's Biggest Economy?

China used to be an authentically communist country, and this led to at least 36 million Chinese people starving to death during the great famine of China (Link). In response, China finally reformed their economy in 1978, switching to a capitalist / free market system (Link). This year (2014), China will pass the United States as the world's leading economic power (Link). 

I am currently living in Shenzhen, China, and on a daily basis I am witnessing the growing prosperity here. Disturbing pictures of starving people have been replaced by cities filled with rising skyscrapers and streets filled with expensive cars. Of course, there are still income inequality problems in China. However, this is a better problem to have than a country filled with zero income households. In fact, after replacing communism with free market capitalism, China is quickly becoming the richest country in the world.

Which system do you think works better, a communist system or a free market system?

Is the United States Economy Strong or Weak?

The Dow Jones is really high (over 16,000), but so is the national debt (almost $17 trillion, up from $10.6 trillion in 2008). It kind of reminds me of college, when I felt rich because I had a lot of loan money in the bank. In your opinion, is the US economy doing well?