> the US' technological and economic advantages,
> relative to the Eurozone and Asia, are nowhere near
> as great as they were even 20 years ago and are, in
> fact, trending down.
Yes, I agree, but economies of Germany and Japan have stagnated in the recent years and fSU is gone. AFAIK, US economic growth in the 90s was better than other developed economies.
> "They" need "our" market and the
> universal acceptability of our currency and we need
> their capital to maintain the idea of our centrality
> to the world's
> economic flows -- to keep spending big to live large.
> But how long can this be sustained?
East Asian economies will also be adversely affected if US can not maintain the current account deficit. Dwayne writes about the problems faced by the US economy. Japan, China, SK also have serious problems. e.g. SK was bailed out by IMF after Asian financial crisis. 150 million people in China suffer from malnutrition etc. It is not possible to predict the shape of the world in 2020 with any certainty.
Ulhas