Since 1970, Asia’s per-capita incomes have increased fivefold.4 Even in Africa, the world’s worst-performing continent, incomes have almost doubled. The West’s median income, meanwhile, has barely shifted in the last half-century. In some parts of Asia, such as Singapore and South Korea, incomes have either overtaken or are level-pegging with the West. In others, notably India, they still languish at less than a tenth of the Western average. But the direction is clear. If you chart a global economic map, the centre of gravity in the twentieth century could be found somewhere in the
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