I guess you're not counting the European Union? Because functionally, it's one economic block. There are other measures other than GDP. US National Debt and th

I guess you're not counting the European Union? Because functionally, it's one economic block. There are other measures other than GDP. US National Debt and the current account balance is getting out of control: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_ac... (As an Australian I can't judge, in relative terms we're not doing so well by this measure either). The current market downturn is a case in point. Whilst it's hurting globally, it's not hurting nearly as much as it would have in the past. In modern history a recession in the US would have usually == recession worldwide. As it stands, you can't deny a slowdown in many key areas, but there are still parts of the global economy that are going strong.