Why have a few countries, mostly in Western Europe and North America, become so much wealthier than the rest of the world's nations?

Britain'smillennial celebrations are justified; after all, the British introduced and disseminated the two most important ideas of democratic institutions and free-market economics.

Rapid and pronounced population aging represents a highly uneven, largely unappreciated, and as yet almost entirely undiscounted long-term risk for the world's emerging markets.