Powerful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World

Chapter 7. Prosperity and Decline

In the coming decade, an increasingly global economy will generate different and seemingly contradictory economic conditions around the world. The spread of the market economy—and its substantial reinvention by new entrants—will create new prosperity and opportunity for millions of people, and proponents of free trade will focus on these positive developments. Yet this economic dynamism will also generate friction for many. There will surely be absolute decline in some parts of the world, especially areas already blighted by conflict, corruption, disease, and environmental catastrophe; many people in developing countries will become more aware of their relative poverty as global communication continues to shrink ...