Obama also pushed the reset button with Russia, and suggested that he might freeze Bush s plan to deploy a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. The expectation was that Russia would join the United States in putting pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

Instead, governments are clawing to stretch out unsustainable booms, further pushing up commodity prices, and raising the risk of a once in a lifetime economic and financial mess. All this need not end horribly, but policymakers in most regions have to start pressing hard on the brakes, not the accelerator.