Quote of the Day (Niall Ferguson, on How the West Blew the Peace Dividend)

“The west had its peace dividend after 1991. We blew it in a two-decade party of consumption, leverage and speculation. First came the financial hangover; now comes the geopolitical reckoning. Dealing with it will mean relearning the arts of grand strategy and war.” —Historian Niall Ferguson, “The West Has Blown Its Peace Dividend,” The Financial Times, Sept. 26-27, 2015

Ferguson wrote this article before the cascade of bad news—terrorist attacks, right-wing reaction—that has afflicted the West since. Even so, his last sentence is so ominous in its way that I hope and pray it won’t come true.