China's Rise and the New Age of Gold: How Investors Can Profit from a Changing World

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Not the Same Old Developing World

TOM STOPPARD’S PLAY, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, first produced in 1967, is based on the conceit of taking two minor characters from Hamlet and making them the main players. That premise isn’t a bad way to understand the breakout role the developing world is seizing today vis-à-vis the developed world.

Developing countries used to be bit players in the global economy. They contributed to the overall action largely as suppliers of essential commodities to the marquee countries like the United States that played leading roles. But individually and as a collection, their economies were too small to have much of an impact on the world as a whole.

When Western economies were thriving, world growth ...