We used to be a side show, but now we are part of the main show. Countries are acting much more like companies. They treat the global finance markets like companies treat venture capitalists, asking for understanding, doing road shows, etc. This is not the image I had in my head. Friedman writes about it in his book, but seeing it for real from real world leaders is sobering.
People running countries care about people .
They must because the people now have more information about what's going on. People have more power than they used to. The countries seem to have a camaraderie around the common condition of globalization and international finance, much as regular people do around the weather good or bad. They have to help each other, or else they all go down. Globalization is here whether we like it or not, and the good outweighs the bad, but there is bad.