Last year an Australian businessman with the bellicose-sounding name Steve Killelea launched a nation-by-nation ranking of peacefullness with the Economist Intelligence Unit called the Global Peace Index. Looking at this year's rankings, handily arranged with 2007 vs. 2008 in compare mode, one sees that the United States (97), still in the lower bracket, has gained seven points while Germany is unmoved at the fairly respectable position 14 and the UK rises two places to 49. Sweden, which usually tops these sorts of lists, actually loses four points. Might it be the weapon-making?

As for what keeps the U.S. in its lowly, albeit slightly improved, position says Killelea to the AP, is it having "the highest proportion of jailed people in the world. And it has high levels of homicide and high potential for terrorist attacks." Lest his list be labelled as agitprop or a tool for the vast global socialist conspiracy, Killelea stresses that the index strives to avoid making moral statements. Peace, of course, is an economic factor as well. Has anyone invested in Somalia recently?