It is absolutely adorable that the so-called experts are just now realizing the world is on fire. Following the recent **Mark Carney speech**—where the former central banker warned we are sliding back into a **pre-WWII order**—the global elite are clutching their pearls. For years, the custodians of the **rules-based order** have been meeting in Swiss hotels, sipping champagne, and insisting that **global economic fragmentation** wasn't a real threat. They told us that if we just played nice and let the banks run wild, happiness would trickle down. Well, look around. Does anyone look happy to you?

According to the latest frantic analysis regarding **middle powers geopolitics**, the world is returning to an era of chaos. That is a polite way of saying we are reverting to a time when countries built walls instead of bridges. The "middle powers"—those nice, polite nations relying on international treaties—are realizing the principal has left the building. They faced a grave new challenge thinking the big countries would protect them, but the school has been taken over by the rowdy kids.

Then there is the topic of Donald Trump. The smart people in suits love to blame everything on him. But as noted in coverage of Carney's analysis, the former governor admitted a hard truth: Trump is not the cause of the problem; he is a symptom. As Carney notes in his critique of the **global economy**, the "corrosion of trust" in democratic institutions didn't happen overnight. It is the result of forty years of ignoring normal people to build a system of extreme inequality.

This isn't rocket science; it is basic human behavior. If you play a game where the same three people win every single time, eventually the other players are going to flip the board over. That is where we are now. The board has been flipped, and the "middle powers" are getting hit in the face with the flying pieces. We are inching back to the 1930s, seeing the rise of anger and the end of cooperation. The polite countries are terrified because they don't know how to survive in a bar fight; they only know how to survive in a debate club. But the debate is over. Welcome to the new old world.

### References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: "As the world inches back to a pre-WW2 order, the 'middle powers' face a grave new challenge" via [BBC News](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c99kkerr93ko?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss). * **Context**: Refers to former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney's lecture warning of a "rupture" in the global order. * **Key Concepts**: The article discusses the shift away from the "rules-based order," the vulnerability of middle powers (like the UK and Canada), and Carney's assertion that populist figures are symptoms of deeper economic rot rather than the sole cause.