Prosperity in motion

When Mayer Amschel Rothschild was founding his banking dynasty, he dispersed his five sons to Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna and Naples. That was the early 19th century. If he were doing it today, where would he send them? Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Dubai, Moscow? Jim Rogers, a hedge-fund pioneer, is teaching Mandarin to his young daughter and plans to move to China, because he sees the center of gravity shifting to the East. "Where is it written," asked a prominent British politician in Prague recently, "that the West has an inherent right to be wealthy?" The sharp decline in the value of the dollar in late 2006, coupled with the realization that the U.S. is losing the war in Iraq, are two reminders that prosperity can be a passing phase in human existence. While Czechs are quarrelling over their nongovernment and the U.S. is making plans to colonize the moon, much of the rest of the world is marching into 2007 to a different beat. (A Czech version of this appears in today's Respekt.) [Czech Republic United States of America United Kindom England]