I remember a few years ago anthropologist Ian Morris released an influential book arguing that, while the "West" had ruled for the past few centuries, now that balance of power was shifting to the "East". It is a common narrative/fear but he produced a wealth of historical socioeconomic data to support this idea of a pendulum swing between west/east power with the 21st century marking another swing back towards the east. I think this narrative is wrong. It's clear that power is not shifting from the west to the east but from the west to a mutating global corporate parasite. Obama keeps saying that the TPP will be great for American trade. In reality what the TPP does is elevate corporate entities to the level of sovereign governments. They will be able to privately decide public policies, overpower national courts, and sue any country that weakens profit in favour of social or ecological issues. I don't believe in the illuminati, I don't think we need to believe in that. The formation of a global corporate elite is not something being hidden in the shadows of strange billionaire occult ritual ceremonies, it is being formally orchestrated within the epicentre of governments all around the world.