"tectonic shift"

okay, we all know this is happening...china/india/the east more generally are overtaking the US in economic prowess. even the BBC says so. could the dollar's drop be one of the first material indicators?

generally, things aren't looking too hot for us 'mericans. man, is it going to suck for us when english is no longer the universal language. and of all the languages to overtake ours, it just had to be chinese, didn't it? with that ridic tonal system, and nightmare alphabet of crazy characters. it does make one wonder whether it's harder for english speakers to learn chinese, or the other way around...

can someone please write a pithy, well-researched article about this? thanks.