NEW YORK/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The world’s industrialized nations, burdened with aging populations and deeply in debt, face years of slow economic growth that could speed the shift of economic clout to the East.

The United States has no coherent plan to pay for supporting a retiree pool that is about to overflow with the so-called “babyboom” generation, and lawmakers missed an opportunity to address that during the debt debate that dragged the country to the edge of default this week.