For two centuries Europe and America dominated global output, manufactured and exported the majority of the world’s goods and invested and consumed far more than the rest of the world combined. Now in 2010 the US and the European Union are being out-produced, out-manufactured, out-traded and out-invested by the rest of the world – but not out-consumed. All the individual dramas of the last three years – the subprime mortgage disaster, Lehman’s collapse, Greek deficits, and Irish bankruptcies – can highlight, but should not obscure, these global economic shifts that now threaten the west. The danger for America and Europe is years of low growth and high unemployment.
兩個世紀以來，歐洲和美國一直在全球產出中佔據主導地位，製造並出口了世界上絕大多數的商品，投資和消費遠遠超過世界其它地區的總和。今天，在2010年，美國和歐盟(EU)正在生產、製造、貿易和投資等領域被世界其它地區所超越——但消費卻沒有被超越。過去三年爆發的一起起戲劇性事件，如次貸災難、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)倒閉、希臘赤字和愛爾蘭破產，可以突顯出（但不應該掩蓋）上述威脅著西方的全球經濟轉變。美國和歐洲面臨的危險是，將出現持續多年的低成長和高失業。