If you don't read Walter Russell Mead.....

.....well, you should.   Here is an excerpt from his latest blog post:

"Progress is sometimes painful, but growing pains and death
throes are very different conditions.

"Granted, this is cold comfort for the global malcontents
camped out across the world, from Zuccotti Park to London
to Wukan. Coping with the social and political fallout of
global economic disruption, as well as searching for creative
and constructive ways forward, will remain the central
challenges for the powers-that-be for the rest of the decade.
Just as we warned two years ago, you should be skeptical of
anyone who tells you otherwise.

"Hold on. It is going to be a wild ride."