An Overall View to West and East

Abstract

There are many reasons for supposing that both the world economy and international politics are on the verge of major changes. This makes it difficult to forecast the progress of events, the more so because our mental attitudes are to a great extent governed by old ideas. Thus, most Western economists expected the depreciation of the US dollar, and the drop of oil prices, to bring about a significant revival of the Western economy. This forecast still fails to be justified by events; indeed there are many symptoms of short run weakness.