The effect of the handover has been largely debated and talked about for a long period of time.

Even as a moderate slowing in US growth looms, growth prospects have improved for other engines of the world economy.

Investors used to look at ratings for a barometer as to whether to sell or buy bonds.

The basic economic trends in India remain pretty compelling. Growth should still be in the 6 to 6.5 percent range. They've managed to keep inflation under control and you've had a private sector that has a history of detaching itself from some of the politics going on.

But there are new faces all the time.

I entered at an interesting time, after the L.A. riots, when the field was in crisis. A lot of the movement was down with solidarity with other races, but the riots were a shock. The focus became interracial relations, and they wanted to know what I thought. It gave me a weird credibility in the field. A lot of us got published in academic journals right away.