The subprime credit crisis and business slowdown in the United States are yielding more evidence that the economic clout of the United States is waning.

The energy-rich countries and major exporting countries are awash in U.S. dollars. "These vast savings have to go somewhere, and sovereign wealth funds—the investment arms of these nations—have provided infusions of cash to otherwise desperate American financial firms,"; said Fareed Zakaria in the Feb. 4, 2008, Newsweek.

"Imagine what the U.S. economy would look like without these investments. Many of its most illustrious banks and financial companies would have gone bankrupt, triggering cascades of gloom and doom across America,"; he wrote.

Mr. Zakaria noted the disconnect between what the U.S. presidential candidates are talking about and the real world where the U.S. president must plead with the Saudi king to ease oil prices.

"Meanwhile Middle Eastern fund managers and Asian consumers are quietly keeping the U.S. economy afloat,"; he said.