Mirror, mirror, on the wall — who's the fairest of them all? That's the question most economists are asking. Many answer China, a few holdouts contend: America. I'd like to tell you a very different story, that clashes with both orthodoxies. Economic might isn't shifting. It's evaporating. Welcome to the Age of Decline.

A new decade's breaking, and in it, people, companies, and countries will have to strategize differently. The story the macroeconomic tea leaves foretell isn't one of power shifting from America to China or anywhere else.

It is a story of global economic might everywhere wavering and falling, unable to meet the new challenges of the 21st Century, The Age of Decline isn't just American: it's global, a descent into a new kind of economic dark age - unless different choices are made.

Follow the link below to read the article in full:

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/11/whats_your_strategy_for_the_ne.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE

Umair Haque is Director of the Havas Media Lab, a new kind of strategic advisor that helps investors, entrepreneurs, and firms experiment with, craft, and drive radical management, business model, and strategic innovation.

Prior to Havas, Umair founded Bubblegeneration, an agenda-setting advisory boutique that helped shape the strategies of investors, entrepreneurs, and blue chip companies across media and consumer industries. Bubblegeneration's work has been recognized by publications like Wired, The Red Herring, Business 2.0, and BusinessWeek, and in Chris Anderson's Long Tail, to which Umair was a contributor.

Reprinted with permission