Probable Near-Term Developments
- China surpasses the United States as the single country with the largest economy.
- Regulated capitalism continues to be the dominant economic system throughout the world, although countries vary widely in their degree of government regulation and their level of taxation and social services.
- Both wealth and income inequality continue to widen in the United States, with increasing wealth and income allocated to a smaller and smaller percentage of the population. Public awareness and dissatisfaction grows steadily, as well as concern about its effects of politics and government.
- The United States Dollar continues to play the role of the world’s reserve currency.
- Despite destabilization by the Greek debt crisis in the late 2000s, the Eurozone continues to hold together and remain one of the world’s largest economies.