This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world.

I'm Farid Zakaria coming to you from New York.

Today on the program, what is happening inside Putin's Russia?

Is he losing his grip on power? Is he at odds with his own commanders?

And how might his forces fare against the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive?

We will get inside from Pax, Julia Yothi and Russian journalist in exile Andrei Sol

And since China opened up its economy in 1978, it has averaged almost 10% growth a year.

But are we now at peak China?

The Economist K. Eugene weighs in.

Also has humanity gotten well-dumber thanks to the supercomputers in our pockets that can tell us everything we need to know in an instant.

I will talk to the author Simon Winchester about the past, present, and future of knowledge.

But first, here's my take.

America's death-sealing crisis once again provoked the usual commentary about how it shows the country is basically dysfunctional.

But the truth is this unprovoked madness, causing self-inflicted wounds, took place against the backdrop of astonishing strength.

The facts cannot be disputed. The United States has recovered from the pandemic faster than any major economy in the world.

As Bloomberg's Matthew Winkler recently points out, unemployment is stunningly low.

GDP growth has grown at three times the average pace as under Donald Trump. Real incomes are rising.

Manufacturing is booming and inflation has now eased for 10 straight months.

Even the budget deficit, which was at 15.6% of GDP at the end of the Trump presidency, dropped at 5.5% of GDP at the end of last year.

The picture is even better when viewed more broadly.

The US remains the world's leader in business, especially in cutting-edge technology.

Scholars, Sean Stars and Stephen Brooks found that looking at the globe's top 2,000 companies, Chinese firms came in first in shares of Globe profits.

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