America's credit rating being downgraded is a crucial moment not just for the United States but for the world. The world’s most powerful nation and its President have been humbled in full global view. More fundamentally, the Western political class has been found sadly wanting in its inability to cope with a long-brewing crisis as the balance of global economic power shifts to Asia. The interconnected nature of globalised economics and politics means there is no hiding place from the woes of the nation we have grown used to exercising leadership since 1945 and since the end of the Cold...