Definitely not the best of times

The same policies have now been recommended to revive the declining economies of the European Union, which is to say pretty much all of them except Germany. The results have not been encouraging, though.

While the EU ship is still in troubled waters, the United States' economy is believed to have weathered the economic tornado. But in reality, it doesn't seem anywhere near regaining its economic (and thus military) might. Why else has the US withdrawn its combat troops from Iraq and is on way to doing the same in Afghanistan, leaving the two countries battered and bleeding?

More importantly, why haven't the "world's leading economists" - the successors of Friedman, the prophets of plenty - helped their homeland to continue to be the "pastures of plenty"?

There is a lesson in all this for the emerging economies, including China and India (especially India, which is so eager to swallow the Western economic bait, hook, line and sinker). Giving free reign to laissez faire, creating an undue favorable environment for multinationals and lifting government control over the economy can only spell doom.

There is something else, equally, if not more important: the environment. The emerging economies, particularly China, have registered mind-boggling rates of growth, but growth has come at a high cost, the cost of the environment. Take India for example. A study (surprisingly) by the World Bank says that damage from environmental degradation in India amounts to more than $61 billion a year, or 5.7 percent of GDP, which shaves off almost the entire 6 percent per capita growth and 75 percent of the GDP increase between 2000 and 2011.

But with the US-led West caring less about the environment and hell-bent on exploiting the "opportunities" offered by receding ice cover in the Arctic and the so-called shale gas revolution in the US and Canada, the environment can only suffer more damage.

So if the emerging economies follow Western economist' advice, the environment, and with it the whole world, can jolly well go to you've guessed it!

The author is a senior editor with China Daily. Email: oprana@chinadaily.com.cn