The Power of Growth Marks the Summer of Economic Divergence

We live, we are told regularly, in a new era of geopolitical rivalries and a global economy being reshaped by the tools deployed in that competition. But what if, unlikely as it might seem, there’s a bigger force doing the reshaping than all those sanctions and tariffs.

The emerging theme this summer has been a divergence in growth between major economies. Increasingly, it looks like the US may avoid a widely predicted recession and execute a soft landing thanks possibly to what’s been labeled an immaculate disinflation. China, meanwhile, is facing what appears to be a harder landing while the euro zone and UK seem mired in their own difficult slowdowns.