Rana Foroohar

Between US and European re-regulation of the banking sector and the rise of China's capitalist autocracy, we have clearly entered an era in which the state will exert ever more power.

If there was any remaining doubt that the era of financial capitalism is over and the age of Big Government has begun, French President Nicolas Sarkozy dispelled it with his keynote speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

How economists are competing to make sense of our failed financial system.

If you had any doubt about what Fareed Zakaria calls "the rise of the rest," consider a new Bank of America Merrill Lynch report on the performance of emerging markets over the past decade.

Beijing isn't trying to impress us.

Those entering the workforce now will likely make less and save more—not just in the short term but for the rest of their lives.

It's taken for granted that America enjoys a huge advantage from the fact that the dollar is the world's global reserve currency, representing more than 60 percent of the money held in central banks.

Most people assume China emerged triumphant from the financial crisis: it's still growing 8 percent a year, is flush with cash, and didn't even feel the credit crunch, thanks to a trillion dollars in new bank lending in 2009.

Is a strong U.S. dollar really good for the economy and the country? Maybe not.

Short-term prospects may be brightening, but high unemployment will be a fixture for the foreseeable future.

Small businesses create most of America's new jobs. But in the wake of the financial crisis, they're suffering considerably more than bigger firms--and their problems will likely keep unemployment figures high for some time to come.

None of the factors that drove the global food crisis in 2008 have gone away. Agricultural production is still tapped out, trade barriers are high, and demand, especially from emerging markets, is growing.

Last week, we got more proof of Wall Street's utter disconnect from the rest of the world when Goldman Sachs's chief executive Lloyd Blankfein was quoted as saying he's doing "God's work." Apparently, he's also a "blue-collar guy" and "everybody should be happy" that he and his peers are on track to take home billions in bonuses this year.

Investors last week were buzzing about a report released by the Chinese central bank ahead of President Obama's visit to the country, which indicated that Beijing might once again be thinking of letting the yuan rise to reflect China's growing heft in the global economy.

According to its CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs is doing "God's work." This quote, care of the LondonTimes(though delivered in irony, according to Goldman Sachs) was met with bewilderment at a Chinese business conference in Lisbon last week, where foreign CEOs and government officials were dumbstruck by the hubris.

The conventional wisdom is that China is steaming through the global financial crisis by building on the momentum generated by its 30-year boom. Indeed, ever since it sailed through the last big global crisis—the Asian contagion 10 years ago—Beijing has been feted for uniquely steady helmsmanship in financial storms.

One reason growth forecasts for rich nations are so grim is the common assumption that birth rates are falling. Fewer people will produce less income, and shrinking economies.

Remember back in 2001 when BP went "Beyond Petroleum"? It was a brilliant marketing campaign, but it had less to do with changing the company's business model than positioning Lord John Browne as the Teflon oil executive.

While Barack Obama was busy yesterday telling Wall Street to shape up, French President Nicolas Sarkozy spent this morning criticizing the entire economic status quo.

It hasn't been easy to find a bright spot in the global economy for a couple of years now. Growth markets, once as numerous as no-interest mortgage options, have grown scarce.

Stephen Roach spoke with Rana Foroohar about China's future: It's been a turbulent year in china, with the uighur unrest, but also the amazing second-quarter gdp figures (growth was up 17 percent), which inspired trust in beijing.

When Morgan Stanley Asia chairman Stephen Roach talks, people listen: his opinions on the global economy have been known to shape policy from Beijing to Washington.

It will come as little shock that European support for Barack Obama's handling of foreign affairs is quadruple the rate given to his predecessor, George W.

Here's a rare bright spot as a result of the global financial crisis. The World Bank's Doing Business Report, which tracks how easy or hard it is to start new businesses in various countries around the world, is just out today, and more countries than ever are slashing red tape around starting businesses.

Back in 2002, Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing, Asia's most successful entrepreneur, founded the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing to turn out a new kind of Chinese global leader.

One thing the nation's next leaders don't talk about is growth.

During a recent trip to Japan, New York University economist Edward Lincoln was surprised to find executives at Toyota wringing their hands─not about sales, which were down 27 percent since the beginning of the year thanks to the global recession, but about their new position as the No. 1 automaker in the world.

Political infighting in Iran heated up yesterday when some of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative supporters warned him that he might not get a second term in office if he doesn't start towing the line.