America the Troubled in 2011

The world economy has three economic zones which could provide various competing or clashing trends in the next year. This, according to the December 2010 edition of the Economist, means big emerging markets such as China , India and Brazil see projected growth but policies that are anti-inflationary. Europe is likely to stagnate due to austere fiscal measures in response to the sovereign debt crisis. America, on the other hand is likely to see anemic growth at the cost of increased debt, with certain but unpredictable and dire consequences. What is interesting is that the European and American partnership is diverging in their techniques of acheiving common goals, namely growth and stability, while the emerging markets are trying to temper growth and, eventually, reshape the gloabl order. This means that we are enetering a multi-polar economic world and American policy should not be made imperiously as if we are the wind itself. Instead, the US should focus squarely on sound fiscal measures in the medium term with an eye on the storms around the world which could batter us in time.