The U.S. can still spread a cold
That “hot new theory” about how the world economy can truck on without the U.S.? “It’s completely wrong,” says Daniel Gross in Slate. “Decoupling” posits that the U.S., accounting for 30 percent of the global economy, still matters but no longer “determines the fate of the globe.” New economic powerhouses like Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with their new middle classes, would trade with each other if the U.S. “lagged,” the theory goes. Well, “decoupling worked well for a few minutes.” In the first half of the year, the U.S. faltered while the rest of the world hummed along. “In recent weeks, there’s been a shift.” Europe, Japan, and even China are now faltering. “We Americans are no longer in the soup alone.”
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