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The great story of the last decade has been the "rise of the rest"—emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Turkey and India—to a position rivaling that of the established, advanced economies. As the aftershocks of the financial crisis of 2008–2009 continue to ripple through the global system, will the rising rest stay or track or be derailed? Some of the world's top economists examine this question in the following section.

The G‐20 supplanted the G‐8 as the executive committee of globalization as the emerging and advanced economies came together in the wake of the Wall Street crash to stave off depression. Now, each country is going its own way.In this section we examine whether the G‐20 can be saved, and what the countries within it must do to bring the global economy into balance.

The further we get from the crisis moment of the global financial meltdown in 2008–2009, the weaker the momentum to establish an effective system of global governance. Gordon Brown, the former prime minister of Great Britain who hosted the most successful G‐20 conclave in London at the apex of the crisis, laments the complacency that has taken over. With the scandalous departure of Dominique Strauss‐Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund, a global debate has opened up over whether the emerging economies should have a greater voice in that institution. Nobel laureate Michael Spence comments.

The United States accuses China of subsidizing its entire export economy through artificially undervaluing its currency. China accuses the United States of fiscal profligacy while flooding the world with easy credit to keep its economy afloat. This dispute reflects the reality that the world's two largest economies are built on opposite dynamics of production and savings vs. consumerism and debt. In Europe, the wages of unsustainable debt that financed the welfare state have also come due.Rebalancing the global economy in this context is not only a matter of fixing exchange or interest rates and extending the retirement age. It must also involve a recalibration of democracy in both East and West. Two Nobel economists, the Greek prime minister, a ranking Chinese economist and the former chief economist of the IMF address these issues.