THE current print edition contains a briefing on a "great deceleration" across emerging markets. The BRIC economies have been going through a slowdown of late, yes, but while some of that slowdown is just cyclical stumbling some of it reflects the end of a unique era of economic growth—and, more importantly, of catch-up growth by the world's poorer economies.
Europe has been pulling apart from the world's other large economic areas, in terms of real output per person, for roughly half a millenia. But in the late 19th century the world entered an era of "divergence, big time". The typical American, who was just six times better off than the typical Chinese or Indian in 1890, was about 25 times better off 100 years later.
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