The Great Boom

I never heard anyone put it quite like this:

The working assumption of the "Great Boom" is – or was – that we live in a benign era where most societies are converging towards some form of market liberalism; where trade and capital flows are unrestricted; where governments have enough legitimacy to keep order by light touch; where a major war is unthinkable.

I especially like the line about "legitimacy" and "light touch". From England, via Tam.