The future is now, but not necessarily here

During the Q & A of the News from the Future symposium, James Wolfensohn hammered away at his previous point about our failure in the U.S. to prepare young people for a global economy. He said that he once gave a speech, in English, to 700 school children in Beijing, and there was no translator. A Chinese scholar visiting the U.S. certainly could not do the same, he said.

In 25 years, India and China will be the nations with the largest concentrations of middle class citizens, Wolfensohn said. 

"We can no longer think of rich countries and poor countries, because the second level of developing countries will soon be our competitors," he said. 

Jonathan Potts