America's future in the post-American world economy

American global economic dominance has been clear for at least the last 110 years of its 250-year history, and it was widely foretold for half a century before that. It was never just about scale, even if sometimes it seemed that way. Nor was it ever truly about laissez-faire free markets or equal opportunity, even though the US has alternated between loudly advocating and clearly failing to meet those ideals, throughout the same history.

What made the American economy an ongoing success at home and abroad has always been its dynamism. The 1776 revolution's spirit of 'no kings' took economic…