At least he has a good take on Stiglitz at the end. Obama's ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, was a disciple of Ignatieff's.
The best thing the U.S. and Europe could do to combat the autocrats in Russia, China and Egypt, etc. would be to create prosperous, free societies that serve as examples to the peoples of those regions. (Obamacare and the recent 9-0 Supreme Court decision in favor of privacy rights are brights spots Ignatieff doesn't mention.)
I'm curious about the extent of Germany's trade in the years leading up to 1914. China depends upon the U.S. consumer market (they have a loaded water pistol pointing at our heads) and doesn't Russia depend on Europe to buy its natural resources?
The best thing would be for the Fed to target 4 percent inflation and help Europe adjust.
This is what humanitarian internationalists like Power should be in favor of. The U.S. is missing out on a trillion dollars a year in lost output since the Great Clusterfuck. Some of that could be spent on things short of war to help ameliorate the humanitarian disasters in Africa and the Middle East. If the Republican Party was defeated or neutered, China could be brought in to have more of a says at the IMF and World Bank.
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