When the system is flush with cash, globalization expands

■"Huge Flood of Capital to Invest Spurs World-Wide Risk Taking: Corporate and Foreign Savings Chase Assets, Driving Prices Up, Keeping Returns Low," by Greg Ip and Mark Whitehouse, Wall Street Journal, 3 November 2005, p. A1.

I will stipulate all the fears expressed in this piece.

I will also note that, historically speaking, the globalized economy spreads around the planet primarily when financial markets are flush and there's plenty of cash chasing opportunities.

Conversely, it contracts when the global economy is starved for capital.

Riskier? Yes. But all progress is based on risk, so it sure as hell beats the alternative.