MUNICH — Panta rhei. Everything flows.
This Greek aphorism often comes to mind when I think of the economic and political changes in my lifetime. They seemed as impossible before they occurred as they have felt natural in retrospect. Communism fell. Germany was united. The United States elected a African- American president. Now we are in a phase in which Asia is catching up with the West and U.S. hegemony is being challenged.
While American casino capitalism has collapsed, and America's European economic satellites are suffering, China seems to have taken advantage of the situation, increasing its trade surplus amid the global economic crisis. Indeed, in the first four months of this year, China became the world's leading goods exporter, overtaking Germany, the previous champion.