Brazil's economy overtake UK's

[DGuller]

I find it difficult to define a hegemon by the amount of counterfeit watches, handbags and pharmaceuticals it produces.  You'll have to do better, mongers.

Money keep telling yourself that, but just look around you, who much of your stuff in your Condo has made in China stamped on it ? 

I have three telephones that say "Western Electric, Model 500" stamped on them.  BUILT TO MOTHERFUCKING LAST.
So fuck you.

Never heard of those.  Do they run on Android or Windows 7?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Heck why does there have to be a hegemon?

To ensure world peace.

(Guards, take this traitor away!  )

Indeed. Centwuwion! Thwow Walmy to the fwoor!

[HisMajestyBOB]

I find it difficult to define a hegemon by the amount of counterfeit watches, handbags and pharmaceuticals it produces.  You'll have to do better, mongers.

Money keep telling yourself that, but just look around you, who much of your stuff in your Condo has made in China stamped on it ? 

I have three telephones that say "Western Electric, Model 500" stamped on them.  BUILT TO MOTHERFUCKING LAST.
So fuck you.

Never heard of those.  Do they run on Android or Windows 7?

Steam.

[PJL]

I suspect the Chinese fudge their numbers a bit.  They still have a communist party after all.

They've certainly done it in the past.  I have no reason to believe that they're going to overtake us that soon.

Indeed they have, but one number that they've fudged a lot is the exchange rate which if anything underestimates their market rate GDP. So even if other numbers are fudged, they probably cancel each other out.

[PJL]

So unless China crashes and burns soon we may have a new hegemon in a couple of decades.

Excellent.

But really the US passed the UK in the size of its economy decades before it replaced it as hegemon so it may not be as soon as you think.

Indeed, the US surpassed the UK economy by 1852, and apart from 1853, they've been bigger ever since. Curiosuly, I've read that Britain only surpassed China in GDP by around 1850, so it could be argued that Britain was the world leader geopolitically without actually being the economic number 1.

[dps]

I would suggest that the EU could help to take up some of the burden and work as an equal partner with the US, but do not want to derail the thread into comedy territory.

The trouble is the US has done too much and is simply overstretched.  It's not a case of someone stepping in, so much as no-one else really finding that breadth of deployment in their vital interest.  I don't think it's even in the US's interests. 

I'm not sure what 'heavy lifting' there is still to do.

Well, for one thing Iran needs to be put down, or at least their current leadership.

[Sheilbh]

Well, for one thing Iran needs to be put down, or at least their current leadership.

That's arguable.  I've said that if it reaches the point where Israel wants to take out the Iranian nuclear program then I think that's something that the US (and probably Britain) should do.  But that's where I'd draw the line. 

The leadership's unpleasant and bad for the Middle East.  But they're not that consequential, not significantly worse than Iran in the 80s and actually, I think, a fair bit weaker than they were a few years ago.  Is there any real need to put them down?  Not at all.

[CountDeMoney]

I find it difficult to define a hegemon by the amount of counterfeit watches, handbags and pharmaceuticals it produces.  You'll have to do better, mongers.

Money keep telling yourself that, but just look around you, who much of your stuff in your Condo has made in China stamped on it ? 

I have three telephones that say "Western Electric, Model 500" stamped on them.  BUILT TO MOTHERFUCKING LAST.
So fuck you.

Never heard of those.  Do they run on Android or Windows 7?

They're heavy enough to kill you.  That's all you need to know.

[Josquius]

China is never going to take over as the world's superpower in the way the US is. It is going to get old long before it gets that rich. Not that I see its growth lasting long enough for that problem to bite (or any of the other big ones, like industry moving abroad as China becomes less and less the cheap option), I give it 5 years max before the bubble bursts and it undergoes some rather iffy times.

[Eddie Teach]

China's not going to continue growing at 8-10% forever, but they have four times as many people as us. They're bound to catch up in total gdp with halfway competent leadership.

[CountDeMoney]

They'll never catch up.  A nation and its economic engine expressly built on graft and corruption can never last.  China's culture is imbedded with and built upon those premises, and therefore completely antithetical to traditional western economic success.  And until they figure out how to spread the wealth to the 90% of the rest of the population that still farms dirt and eats mudcakes, they never will.  Because they can't.  They don't possess the infrastructure, the history, or the flexibility to do so.
Their economy will collapse, much in the same way the Soviet's political system collapsed: rather quickly.

[jimmy olsen]

This is a bit over the top, the Chinese at least make modern goods for export, something that the Soviets never really mastered.

[DGuller]

This is a bit over the top, the Chinese at least make modern goods for export, something that the Soviets never really mastered.

[CountDeMoney]

This is a bit over the top, the Chinese at least make modern goods for export, something that the Soviets never really mastered.

Fuck you over the top.