The 19th century belonged to Britain, the 20th century belonged to America and in the 21st century, China will rule the business world. Whether you like it or not, this transition is already underway and it will intensify over the coming decades.

When it comes to the U.S. credit crisis, we’ve all heard the numbers. The stock market decline wiped out $7 trillion in shareholder wealth. It forced the federal government to commit to $11.6 trillion in bailout programs and stimulus spending. And it’s led to the longest U.S. downturn since the Great Depression.

This recovery is wonderful in every way, except the important ones. It is like a shiny new airplane. It has glossy aluminum wings. It has plush seats in the first class section. Trim stewardesses serve drinks. Movies are available on demand in all sections…

Here’s an interesting credit crisis byproduct: The 50 million current Social Security recipients probably won’t see any extra SS income until 2012. In fact, millions on the government dime might see their monthly checks shrink.

The bank failure scene in the U.S. turned a shade uglier over the weekend. By this time tomorrow, it’ll probably be even worse.

With the markets pulling back, the opportunities for small-cap stocks are opening up again. We felt it was time for another look at small caps and one of the masters of contrarian investing, David Dreman. Having a contrarian view of the markets can be wildly profitable.

“It looks like things are finally turning around,” said a friend at Saturday night’s dinner. “Not at all… ” we replied. Paul Krugman says the world “avoided a second Great Depression.” He’s wrong too.

Social Security? Not Exactly

As we all know, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees depositors that they’ll get their money back if a bank fails, at least up to a certain amount. To fund its operations, the FDIC collects small fees from the banks that are held in reserve for the purpose of taking over troubled banks and paying off depositors.

While the many of the world’s economies continue to look for signs of growth, the U.S. economy took a big step in the right the direction in the second quarter.