Examines twelve trends the author believes will have a major influence in the years following the global economic downturn of the early twenty-first century.

China will get richer, and then it will get poorer again -- The European Union will disintegrate as an economic entity -- The new colonialism will leave colonizers and colonized worse off in the long term -- Changing immigration policies in rich countries will worsen the brain drain from poor countries, even as they get richer -- The backlash against capitalism won't last, but it won't be replaced by political stability, either -- Americans will become the world's sales force -- As the global economy integrates, the middleman will win -- The collapse of the World Trade Organization will unlock new gains from trade -- A new set of lifestyle hubs will replace today's business hubs -- An enormous financial black market will arise outside of traditional centers -- Global warming will make rich countries cleaner and richer and poor countries dirtier and poorer -- The structure of political institutions will stop the world from solving its biggest problems.