The great decoupling: A new era for China?

Ideological not economical

China was always too large and too important to remain a client economy, dependent on other states.

The question was how, and when, the decoupling would happen. In the wake of the dotcom bust, from around 2000 onwards, the US economy reeled from an awful hangover, arguably similar to the mood we're feeling now, the result of excess exuberance in stock markets. The Federal Reserve had started cutting interest rates in January 2001. A confluence of circumstances - including a weak dollar, easy liquidity, China's accession to the WTO, long-term underinvestment in commodities, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and low valuations for non-US stocks - led to almost a decade in which returns...