Roger C. Altman, in Foreign Affairs:

The financial crisis has called into serious question the credibility of western governments and may precipitate an eastward shift of power.

Chinese households save an astonishing 40 percent of their incomes.

Recently:

There used to be a time if you didn't have money to buy something, you just didn't buy it.

We're all losers now. There's no pleasure to it.

From 2006:

As states recede and the new mediaevalism advances, the outside world is destined to move increasingly beyond the control -- and even the understanding -- of the new Rome. The globe's variegated informal and quasi-informal statelike activities will continue to expand, as will the power and reach of those who live by them. The new Romans, like the old, might not enjoy the consequences.