Unconventional energy technologies, such as hydraulic fracturing, are here to stay. They have already produced a staggering glut of natural gas in the United States, and in the years ahead, they will reshape world politics, bringing wealth and power to those who master them and leaving the old petro-dictatorships behind.
Can the Doha trade talks ever be brought to a close? Without a final consensus, the global trading system remains fragmented. The best chance for a lasting agreement is for China and the United States to make new and significant concessions.
America's economy is in its eighth year of sustained growth, transcending the German and Japanese "miracles." This is no fluke. America's unique brand of entrepreneurial capitalism is based on a series of advantages that explain the stunning success of the 1990s and provide the basis for extending this winning streak. These strengths include deft managers, technological innovation, and a culture that values rugged individualism -- all fueled by finance capital that can nimbly meet the needs of a globalized, rapidly changing economy. Furthermore, the era of the deficit is over. Pessimists who warn of inflation should be ignored; American business leaders understand that today's low level of inflation is self-perpetuating. America's prosperity is structural, not transient, and its lead over Europe and Asia will only widen with time. America had the twentieth century. It will also have the twenty-first.
