Globalized: Are we more vulnerable?

The answer, of course, is yes.

This is a topic I studied extensively in college and, truth be told, actually frightens me. It's much more rare to hear anyone talk about the potential costs of globalization than the benefits -- those have been clear for decades. Only now are we starting to realize what it all means.

Read this and consider the cost...

The financial crisis began as turmoil in one small segment of the US mortgage market. Within months it had morphed into a global meltdown affecting almost everyone on earth.

"The speed at which these events unfolded was unprecedented," said the World Economic Forum's 2009 report on global risk.

"It has demonstrated just how tightly interconnected globalisation has made the world and its systems."