How long will the U.S. stay the largest economy in the world?
Being the world’s biggest economy brings its share of advantages. The U.S. is still the largest economy, and almost three times bigger than the next largest, Japan. But it looks like China’s 9% growth in the last year, while Japan faltered, will put China as #2. Where is this going? China has more than four times our population, and 10 times more than Japan. Will it be like the mid 1800’s when it was only a matter of time before the U.S. passed England due to its sheer size? Some say, give China 25 years and they’ll pass us. I believe that China’s communist “planned” economy simply cannot allocate capital efficiently enough to make this happen, that they will eventually stagnate while we continue to grow. Or China will have an internal upheaval of monumental scale – and THEN start to really grow. Either way, we’re okay at #1 for awhile. What do Greece and Bear Sterns have in common? Are they both “too big to fail?” The European Union is considering an infusion of money to cover Greece’
