Youch. This is not encouraging.
It’s been a rough year. Bloomberg’s Lu Wang, referring specifically to economics and investing, has called 2015 The Year Nothing Worked.
Terrorism is back in force, with ISIS giving us nearly daily examples of unsettling, disillusioning cruelty. That’s hard for humanists, optimists, and progressives to take, day in and day out. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, making us feel that all of the sacrifice of our military men and women for the high goal of democracy in the Middle East may have been in vain.
Meanwhile, our government seems increasingly incompetent, and many of the candidates for the future seem to promise either more of the same, or to be even be worse.
Gideon Rachman of the London Financial Times says “the whole world is on edge.” He says that usually some country is optimistic and doing well. But last year not only the United States but the new powerhouse China have been in the doldrums. He blames not only economic uncertainty but a large scale reaction against governments and elites of every kind.
You can read the rest. Thoughts?
HT: Gene Veith
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