The International Monetary Fund says the so-called "Age of America" is coming to an end.

The group says China's economy will surpass the U.S economy five years from now, which is much earlier than expected.

"It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C. right now, and it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant treasury market," wrote columnist Brett Arends in Marketwatch.

If you look solely at the gross domestic output of the U.S. and China using current exchange rates, you wouldn't see this coming, Arends writes. That's because China works hard to undervalue its currency.

Arends says America's global dominance has been benign. But many countries are concerned because China does not share the U.S.' "respect for civil liberties" and property rights.