A World in a Thousand Shards

When 9/11 happened, there was a coordinated move by the Fed, the BOJ, and the ECB. When the financial crisis unfolded in 2008, there was a coordinated move by the Fed, the BOJ, and the ECB with China following suit. Why does it feel as if the world has shattered into a thousand pieces? Does every country just fight for itself? Where is the UN, where is the EU? Where are the coordinated central bank operations or at least statements of political unity? When I grew up, I always believed that international cooperation is the only answer to challenges to big for a single nation. Was it just four years of Trump that made this idea so unfashionable? This lack of "common sense" is at least as scary as the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19.