Brad DeLong points to an article in Financial Times on Asia: “Asia’s rise is the economic event of our age. Should it proceed as it has over the last few decades, it will bring the two centuries of global domination by Europe and, subsequently, its giant North American offshoot to an end. Japan was but the harbinger of an Asian future. The country has proved too small and inward-looking to transform the world. What follows it – China, above all – will prove neither… ”
A lengthy and skeptical response comes from Michael Gordon. Much of the discussion centres around China.
I believe that China and India are emerging as the twin dynamos for the world economy – India more slowly than China. Both are piggybacking on the outsourcing-to-cut-costs trend and their emerging and increasingly prosperous middle class with money to spend. But for both, real and sustained growth will mean ensuring that the 70% of the populace in the rural areas also needs to be impacted. So far, there are few signs of that happening.
