Today's episode is a little different than usual.

It is a compilation of segments from previous

episodes of economic update that remain relevant for all of us today. And I hope it provides

you with a fresh look at what's changed, how far we've come, and how far we haven't over the last decade.

I want to talk with you about the emerging new world economic order. I do that because enough

of the outlines of that new order, enough of the profiles of the key players are now clear that we can

take a step back from the daily and weekly events we normally analyze to look at the larger picture

for a moment. I almost said darker picture. It isn't all dark, but it is larger. It's an overview, if you

like, of what's happening in the world. And I mean it to inform our understanding of all

the details that we'll be talking about in the future programs that we will be developing.

And the way I'm going to do this today is organize it around four major developments

that are happening at the same time, interacting with one another, but together give us

a clear sense of where this new world economic order is coming.

Okay, we begin. Over the last 30, 40, 50 years, depending on how you count, we have been

involved in what is called neoliberal capitalism, or if you like, global capitalism.

And here's really all that that meant, that coming out of the Great Depression and World

War II, private-led capitalism had a new chance to rebuild after the war, to try to recoup after

the Great Depression, and to have another growth spurt, which it did.

By the 1970s, that growth spurt was beginning to have a problem keeping going. Not unusual in the history of capitalism

as a system. It is growth spurt driven. But after the 1970s, the growth spurt took an unusual

form, where before capitalism had spurted from New England to the Midwest,

from the Midwest to the Far West, from all of those areas to the American South,

...