Why the Credit Crisis Is Good for World Peace

Thanks, Wall Street. It turns out the credit crisis could result in a more peaceful world. Or so says geopolitical strategist Tom Barnett, who puts the credit crisis into a macro perspective:

The profound interdependency of global economics being asserted negatively, it makes everything that came before it (9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, SARS/avian flu, tsunamis, Russia/Georgia) seem minuscule in comparison. This is the financial Y2K of our nightmares: demonstrating an undeniable, inescapable connectivity that renders all fantasies of great power conflicts essentially moot.... In the right hands, this crisis becomes a huge impetus for new political understanding among the world's great powers, reminding them all that what really matters in this age is protecting and expanding the wealth among those being lifted out of centuries of poverty. You either meet the expectations of that emerging global middle class or all of the other preferred "trainwrecks" are made insignificant. This crisis reminds me of a Talking Heads' song that begins with Byrne yelling, "Everybody! Get in line!" If anything, it reminds us of how irrelevant the whole "league of democracies" concept is. It's called a "league of capitalist great powers," and it needs to be called to order—truly—for the first time in history.