Globalisation belonged to us; financial crises happened to them.<\/p>\n
The world has been turned on its head. Consumers in the wealthiest nations are struggling with the consequences of the credit crunch and with the soaring cost of energy and food. In China, retail sales have been rising at an annual 15 per cent. I cannot think of a better description of the emerging global order.<\/p>\n
The trouble is that the politics of globalisation lags ever further behind the economics. For all its tacit recognition that power has been flowing eastwards, the west still wants to imagine things as they used to be. In this world of them and us, \u201cthey\u201d\u009d are accused by Democratic contenders in the US presidential contest of stealing \u201cour\u201d\u009d jobs. Now, you hear Europeans say, \u201cthey\u201d\u009d are driving up international commodity prices by burning \u201cour\u201d\u009d fuel and eating \u201cour\u201d\u009d food.<\/p>\n
The other day I listened to an eminent central banker offer a lucid explanation of the collapse of confidence that last summer paralysed international credit markets. I say lucid because he kept it simple, skipping the indecipherable stuff about algorithms, bundled securities and mark-to-market accounting rules.<\/p>\n