While many observers are still consumed by the economic complexities of the financial crisis, historians have been busy making predictions about the ominous geopolitical implications of a destabilized global economy, rising unemployment, falling incomes, and swelling ethnic tensions. Much like its individual citizens, countries in the aggregate tend to retrench in the face of uncertainty about the future, and that could lead to some dangerously myopic decision-making in the months and years ahead…

Few economists now doubt that private household spending and corporate investment will rescue the economy on their own. The debate now lies in the scale and scope of the government’s intervention, as the only institution with the access to capital, macroeconomic scope, and investment horizon needed to jump-start the labor market, keep production cycles from seizing up, and create the necessary conditions for manageable lending and spending to resume.

As the Annus Horribilis finally comes to an end, many forecasters in the policy and financial communities have been left licking their wounds. This effort from Moises Naim and his team at Foreign Policy tries to capture the best of the worst and is certainly worth a look…

While the world comes to terms with yesterday’s historic call for change, Nouriel Roubini and his team have pulled together a laundry list of the many great challenges that lie ahead…

Speeches like this remind us of why partisan politics is often no better than the alternative, not because of any words directly spoken or feelings directly invoked, but because of the inevitable litany of criticism that unfolds in the wake of a genuine call for change — particularly in the months leading up to an election. There isn’t much in this April 2007 address that disagrees with the basic principles of peaceful co-existance, mutual socio-economic benefit, and the rebirth of the American Dream. If the long tail ever wakes up to the message, this could become an interesting race…

*To listen to a podcast of this speech, click here