<story><title>Britain has abandoned its claim to be the world&apos;s fifth largest economy</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/22/news/economy/uk-france-biggest-economies-in-the-world/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whack</author><text>The real story is the one no one has been talking about. The US has been the world&amp;#x27;s largest economy for the past 100-150 years. In another ~10 years, that will no longer be the case. Every year that passes afterwards, the US is going to fall further and further behind China, until it eventually gets lapped some time in the mid-21st century. It&amp;#x27;s going to be &amp;quot;interesting&amp;quot; to see what happens then.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fortune.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;study-china-will-overtake-the-u-s-as-worlds-largest-economy-before-2030&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fortune.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;study-china-will-overtake-the-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Economic-History-At-what-point-did-the-US-become-the-biggest-economy-in-the-world&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Economic-History-At-what-point-did-the...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ChuckMcM</author><text>People (and by people I mean mostly economists :-)) talk about that all the time. There is an interesting discussion about comparing two economies that are not based on the same fundamental principle (like comparing electric cars to gas cars based on their &amp;quot;miles per gallon&amp;quot; and using an arbitrary metric to transmute kWh into gallons of gasoline).&lt;p&gt;The Chinese government works much more directly in twisting the knobs of the economy, and the government regularly misleads with their economic numbers (sort of like companies that change the accounting rules on the numbers they report). As a result other methods get devised to try to estimate the Chinese GDP and its relative independence from other economies.&lt;p&gt;That said, they are expected to surpass the US on a comparative GDP model, what is less well understood is how durable their form of market management can be.</text></comment>
<story><title>Britain has abandoned its claim to be the world&apos;s fifth largest economy</title><url>http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/22/news/economy/uk-france-biggest-economies-in-the-world/index.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>whack</author><text>The real story is the one no one has been talking about. The US has been the world&amp;#x27;s largest economy for the past 100-150 years. In another ~10 years, that will no longer be the case. Every year that passes afterwards, the US is going to fall further and further behind China, until it eventually gets lapped some time in the mid-21st century. It&amp;#x27;s going to be &amp;quot;interesting&amp;quot; to see what happens then.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fortune.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;study-china-will-overtake-the-u-s-as-worlds-largest-economy-before-2030&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fortune.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;study-china-will-overtake-the-...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Economic-History-At-what-point-did-the-US-become-the-biggest-economy-in-the-world&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.quora.com&amp;#x2F;Economic-History-At-what-point-did-the...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>forapurpose</author><text>The other real story, though a few years old now, is the reduction of the individual European powers from world leaders to second-tier powers.&lt;p&gt;The rise of China has made the first tier out of reach to countries with only 60-80 million people (such as the UK, France, and Germany). If the European powers combined - somehow, who knows how - then they would have the weight to be global powers and have more influence to move global affairs in directions the Europeans desire. With only 60 million people, the UK is destined to be a bit player.&lt;p&gt;One wonders why a neighboring second tier Eurasian power would want to disrupt European integration and the resulting arrival of a superpower on their doorstep. Stand together, or hang separately.</text></comment>