Economist David M. Smick's recent book, "The World Is Curved," shows that during the past quarter-century we have had a global "golden age of wealth creation and poverty reduction never before seen in the history of mankind." The global free market "experienced an unprecedented doubling of its labor force from 2.7 billion to 6 billion"; the U.S. had 40 million new jobs created; "the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed from 800 to over 12,000" (it is back under 9000 now); and, according to the Federal Reserve, U.S. households saw their net worth increase from $11 trillion in 1982 to more than $56 trillion today.