WORLD NEWS: “World Bank Doubles Its Aid,” by Tom Barkley, Wall Street Journal, 12 November 2008.

Tons of good stuff in a small article. Assistance to developing countries will be plussed up by more than $100 billion over next few years. Darkened forecast: global growth this year down from 2.7% to 2.6%, with most experts saying the world needs to grow 3% to avoid falling back, so this year will constitute the first great global recession of the modern globalization age (not in technical terms, but in real terms). 2009 is cut from just-getting-by 3% to 1%. Hidden in that global average is the prediction that emerging markets grow 6.5% this year and 4.5% next. Key point, as Zoellick says, is “virtually no country has escaped.” Such is the reality of this globalization of our making. Scariest prediction: financial flows into developing countries will drop from about $1T this year to $530B next year. This is the real threat to globalization’s overall health and advance. But again, after a quarter-century bull run we were eventually going to have to experience this moment, so the question isn’t, Will markets/globalization survive? but What new rules emerge from this opportunity?