How the West Was Lost

The West Is Down, While the “Rising Rest” Is Up

In 2008, the Abu Dhabi government’s investment organization spent $800 million for one of the US’s most iconic structures, the Chrysler Building, in the heart of New York City. In just the first half of 2008, investors from the Middle East spent an additional $1 billion on other US commercial real estate properties.

Non-Western investors’ purchases of major US and Western assets are apt to continue to increase in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. In the past few decades, Western powers have frittered away their wealth, influence and dominant global positions. Now, non-Western nations are rapidly expanding their economies. Consider these trends:

• The US and the West have lost much of their influence over the emerging nations that now have dynamic economies.
• The economic and technological advances that propelled Western development now also benefit developing countries.
• Since the mid-20th century, Western nations have implemented a series of counterproductive economic policies that seriously damaged their once-unassailable positions as global leaders.

Eagerly lining up to replace...