An American virus too weak

I was in the final year of my engineering graduation eagerly waiting to get recruited by a software company operating in Bangalore, the valley of software engineers. I came back home after a long day at college. My mom, who is always glued to SunTV, the premier television broadcasting company in India, called me and asked me to check out the scrolling "Flash news" in the bottom corner of my BPL box.

It was the news, that people never wanted to hear. The news which shook the American Homeland Security; Sept 11 . My deepest condolences to those families who lost their near and dear ones. But, how was I to get affected by the incident ? A bomb blast in Kashmir was treated as a "Breaking news" in the country's leading channels and the next day it would appear as if the news never broke out. And life continued... But a terrorist attack in the United States had a domino effect in the rest of the world. Companies which were piled up in the college's placement list started dropping out. We were apprehensive of our future. An American recession meant a global recession.

Asians were considered to be frugal, and the Europeans were always wrapped in the gloomy weather, and because of the Americans and their spendthrift ways, the world economy had to face hardship only few times. Not anymore..Times have changed. Asia (China, India and Japa) is the world's fastest growing consumer market. Recent forecasts from IMF have told that the household comsumer spending in Asia will rise by 7%, compared to the stingy 3% in America. Yes, Asia is in it's biggest shopping spree, while America is patching up holes in its wallet. No more an American recession will have a huge impact in Asia. Continuing with the current trends, by 2020 China's consumer market will overtake America's, though Dow Jones touched 12,000 mark this season.Foreign exchange reserves in China and India were 987 billion dollars and 158 billion dollars respectively. Some worry that America might come dangerously close to a recession in 2007, because of its low household spending.

Asia has contributed 21% to the increase in the world's GDP compared to America's 19%. Many argue that most of the exports from the Asian continents were to America. Asia's export growth would certainly be affected but most of Asia' growth has been because of the domestic demand.
The vagaries of an American monsoon will no longer make the world's economy vulnerable. The world won't stop for an American breakdown. An American virus will no longer inflict unbearable pain to the world, though it might make it ill.