This means Obama or whoever is president during that period will preside over America's change of the baton. April 25, 2011, 7:20 p.m. EDT IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end Commentary: Chinaâs economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/imf-bombshell-age-of-america-about-to-end-2011-04-25?pagenumber=2 BOSTON (MarketWatch) â The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed. For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the âAge of Americaâ will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China. And itâs a lot closer than you may think. According to the latest IMF official forecasts, Chinaâs economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 â just five years from now. Put that in your calendar. This is more than a statistical story. It is the end of the Age of America. As a bond strategist in Europe told me two weeks ago, âWe are witnessing the end of Americaâs economic hegemony.â We have lived in a world dominated by the U.S. for so long that there is no longer anyone alive who remembers anything else. The rise of China, and the relative decline of America, is the biggest story of our time. You can see its implications everywhere, from shuttered factories in the Midwest to soaring costs of oil and other commodities. âThere are two systems in collision,â said Ralph Gomory, research professor at NYUâs Stern business school. âThey have a state-guided form of capitalism, and we have a much freer former of capitalism.â What we have seen, he said, is âa massive shift in capability from the U.S. to China. What we have done is traded jobs for profit. The jobs have moved to China. The capability erodes in the U.S. and grows in China. Thatâs very destructive. That is a big reason why the U.S. is becoming more and more polarized between a small, very rich class and an eroding middle class. The people who get the profits are very different from the people who lost the wages.â