As Pakistan heads to the polls, debt restructuring and economic recovery are on the ballot. The winner of the contest will inherit a weak economy while wielding little authority to implement reform, and will eventually shoulder the blame for the inevitable crisis.

Ambassador Kanwal Sibal reviews "That Used To Be US", by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, and summarizes that it is an unpretentious book which explains the problems facing the US – heavily marked by a journalistic style that relies extensively on quotations.