Is the West Becoming Irrelevant?

In some international finance circles, the west is viewed as past their prime and sliding downhill. Just wonderful.

Last month's decision by HSBC Holdings to relocate its group chief executive officer from London to Hong Kong sent a strong signal about where the bank sees its future.

Now it looks as if new research from its economics team explains this move in report titled, "The Tipping Point -- The rise of the East and Demise of the West."

Have events reached the point where the threshold has been passed and everyone just "gets it," or is this a case of just following the new bubbles in the East?

The International Monetary Fund seems to "get it." Last week, it released forecasts saying the world economy will recover next year, but it will clearly be led by emerging economies, namely China with 9% growth in 2010 and India with 6.4%. That compares with U.S. growth at 1.5% and a mere 0.3% for the euro region.

Part of the slow growth projections for the U.S. is the reality that we now have an administration that is anti-business and anti-growth. And adding trillions of more debt to hand out "free" health care is not about to make things any better.

Look for the media and the left-wing loonies to blame Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and george W. Bush, in no particular order.