During this decade's global economic boom questions were raised over whether a decoupling of the world economy was occurring. What this refers to is the linkage between the U.S. economy and pretty much everyone else, particularly developing countries. A general rule is that as goes the U.S. economy so goes the rest of the world. When we prosper, they prosper and our reverses become theirs.
Leading the decoupling charge was The Economist, which said that the emergence of China and other countries would help prevent an over-reliance on the U.S. as an export market. At the time I hoped the UK-based publication was correct, as reliance on the U.S. isn't healthy for anyone. Increasingly, however, evidence of a U.S.-led global slowdown suggests that the decoupling hasn't occurred, or at least not to the degree that people had thought.
But this also begs the question of why other countries rely on us for growth. What is it that is so special about us? It isn't merely population -- we only have in the neighborhood of 5% of the earth's inhabitants while the 300 million Americans are dwarfed by the nearly 500 million citizens of the EU.
To me it says that there is something special about our approach and traditional embrace of laissez-faire style capitalism (although this seems to be eroding). Think about that the next time that someone advocates making us more like Europe.
Leading the decoupling charge was The Economist, which said that the emergence of China and other countries would help prevent an over-reliance on the U.S. as an export market. At the time I hoped the UK-based publication was correct, as reliance on the U.S. isn't healthy for anyone. Increasingly, however, evidence of a U.S.-led global slowdown suggests that the decoupling hasn't occurred, or at least not to the degree that people had thought.
But this also begs the question of why other countries rely on us for growth. What is it that is so special about us? It isn't merely population -- we only have in the neighborhood of 5% of the earth's inhabitants while the 300 million Americans are dwarfed by the nearly 500 million citizens of the EU.
To me it says that there is something special about our approach and traditional embrace of laissez-faire style capitalism (although this seems to be eroding). Think about that the next time that someone advocates making us more like Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment