The diffusion of knowledge is the dominant trend of our time. What was happening in Britain during the Industrial Revolution was not an isolated phenomenon. A succession of visitors to Britain would go back to their countries to report on the technological innovations they saw there. Sometimes societies were able to learn extremely fast, as in the United States. Others, like Italy, benefited from starting late, leapfrogging the long-drawn-out process that Britain went through.
    This diffusion of knowledge accelerated dramatically in recent years. Over the last 30 years we have watched countries like Japan, Singapore and now China grow at a pace that is four times that of Britain at tile peak of the Industrial Revolution. They have been able to do this because of their energies, of course, but also because they cleverly  adopted  certain  ideas  about  development  that  had  worked  in  the West  relatively free markets, open trade, a focus on science and technology, among them. And this shift is happening all around the world. From Thailand to South Africa, from Brazil to Mexico, countries are far better managed economically than they have ever been.
    We are sometimes reluctant to believe in progress. But the evidence is unmistakable. The management of major economies has changed greatly in the last few years. Careful monetary policy has tempered the boom-and-bust economic cycles of the industrial world, producing milder recessions and fewer shocks. Every day one reads of a new study campaigning nations in everything from Intemet penelration to interest rates. All these studies and lists are symbols of a learning process that is accelerating, reinforcing the lessons of success and failure.