Decline and fall of just about everyone

[bemildred]

More than 10 years ago, before 9/11, Goldman Sachs was predicting that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) would make the world economy's top 10 - but not until 2040. Skip a decade and the Chinese economy already has the number two spot all to itself, Brazil is number seven, India 10, and even Russia is creeping closer. In purchasing power parity, or PPP, things look even better. There, China is in second place, India is now fourth, Russia sixth, and Brazil seventh.

No wonder Jim O'Neill, who coined the neologism BRIC and is now chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, has been stressing that "the world is no longer dependent on the leadership of the US and Europe". After all, since 2007, China's economy has grown by 45%, the American economy by less than 1% - figures startling enough to make anyone take back their predictions.

American anxiety and puzzlement reached new heights when the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections indicated that, at least by certain measurements, the Chinese economy would overtake the US by 2016. (Until recently, Goldman Sachs was pointing towards 2050 for that first-place exchange.)

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MI27Dj01.html

Pepe takes a leaf from Will Cuppy:

http://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-Practically-Everybody-Hilariously/dp/088029809X

[begin_within]

1. It's time for the decline and fall of Goldman Sachs

[Warpy]

3. And the razing of the buildings that housed the Chicago School of Economics

with the land sown with plutonium to stand as a fitting monument and warning to anyone else who tries to resurrect the absolute rubbish of laissez-faire/mercantilism/supply side/monetarism in the future.

If this country is very, very lucky, we will shed all this garbage and emerge a smaller, more sustainable economy with the benefits of labor distributed mostly to labor and not strip mined by a few wealthy men.

[xchrom]

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