This is a guest post by Gregor Macdonald. Gregor's blog is gregor.us.

It was the best of times for the developing world, and the worst of times for the developed world. In the developing world, they built savings. In the developed world, they groaned and sagged under the weight of debt. In a world where the credit of developed nations had always been believed, the serial monetizations and bailouts set loose an emerging incredulity–driving developing nations into gold, commodity currencies, and land. In the aftermath of the financial crisis the developing world, measured at about 4.5 billion people, lumbered forth with its insatiable demand for energy. Mostly coal.

In the developed world? They replaced their lost demand, lost credit, and the loss of cheap energy the best they knew how: with paper.