Passage 1
The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the USSR ushered in the richest boom in capital flows to emerging markets(新兴市场) thet drove spectacular global economic growth. But that era of challenges and opportunities has now ended. The Asia economies have fallen into dectine. Their financial and economic crises have become global cr affecting all the emerging markets. The great multinational firms that had been the big economnic winners have seen their profit growth slip. Investors, who once had a great tolerance for risk, now are wary. Whatever tolerance that drove global capital flows in the past has now diminished to the point where asset holders have bailed out of stock markets around the world--not just the markets in the once developing world, but from US and European markets as well. Money has fled mostly into sovereign debt instruments, primarily US securities, or is just waiting under the mattress.
For one thing, the United States, by all accounts will continue to be the locomotive (火车头) of global economic growth. The US economy will be constrained by the collapse of so many emerging markets, just as the profits of many multinationals have been trimmed. But the downward pressure on the US is unlikely to force a recession. Americans have a great appetite to consume imported goods, especially now that states that seek to export have weakened currencies and the US has a strong dollar. This future for world trade is especially bright given that the principle trade partners of the US are its nearest neighbors and those partners are likely to continue to benefit most directly from the strength of the US economy.
42.The profit growth of great multinational firms is declining.