ARTICLE: Fruitful Decade for Many in the World, By TYLER COWEN, New York Times, January 2, 2010

Nice piece that fits well with my WPR column last week: the Naughties were very nice to most of the world in terms of economic advance, our financial f---ups notwithstanding.

Opening:

IT may not feel that way right now, but the last 10 years may go down in world history as a big success. That idea may be hard to accept in the United States. After all, it was the decade of 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial crisis, all dramatic and painful events. But in economic terms, at least, the decade was a remarkably good one for many people around the globe.

Even better in the next para:

Ideals of prosperity, freedom and the rule of law have probably never been more resonant globally than they've been over the last 10 years, even if practice often falls short. And for all of the anticapitalistic rhetoric that has emerged from the financial crisis, national leaders around the world are embracing the commercialization of their economies.

Some perspective! Which Cowen routinely provides in his typically great pieces.

Nice, near-ending:

TO put it bluntly, if the United States takes one step back and the rest of the world takes two steps forward, even in purely selfish terms we should consider accepting the trade-off, if only for the longer run. Most of us gain from the wealth and creativity of other countries, even if we can't always feel like the top dog.

So yeah, we'll all going to make a lot more money because globalization continues to expand--crisis or no.