How the investment world has changed over the last 25 years

Stephen Roach reflects on the key changes that have occurred over the past quarter century, from falling inflation to the rise of globalisation and a debate about the place of the US in the global economy that has just come full circle.

Two years 1982 and 2007 frame the window of my experience as an economist at Morgan Stanley. When I walked in the door a quarter century ago, my focus was on a $3 trillion high-inflation US economy that was mired in the depths of its worst recession of the post-World War II era. Today, all eyes are on a low-inflation, increasingly integrated $52 trillion world economy. There couldn't be a greater difference between then and now.

As I look back on the journey, I am struck by three macro milestones:

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