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Reports from the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, suggest that most of the world's leaders are convinced that the current crisis is the result of inherent flaws in capitalism, and are eager to impose new international rules to save the world.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is calling on President Obama to join him in creating a new economic system. "Simply tweaking the old system won't do," he says. He wants "A system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate."

World leaders will meet again in April, hosted by Britain's Gordon Brown. This meeting of the so-called G-20 is a follow-up of the November meeting hosted by President Bush. The growing consensus among these leaders is that capitalism must be brought under control. More importantly, it must be brought under the control of an international authority.

This new system seeks to utilize the creative power of the profit motive while using the authority of government to direct production and distribute profits.

This is not a new idea. Bill Clinton referred to it as "The Third Way," a combination of capitalism and socialism. Advocates of this government-controlled capitalism often point to China as an example of its success. China's economy began to expand dramatically when the government began to allow private entrepreneurs to profit from their own energy and investment.

China's economic growth is the result of loosening government control; tightening government controls on the global economy will inevitably diminish growth. If the controls are held by an international authority, growth can be suppressed in developed nations, and expanded in developing nations. This has long been a primary goal of international socialism and of the United Nations.

As the President and Congress work to enact legislation to cure the current crisis, it's hard to miss the giant steps toward socialism. A major portion of the banking industry has been nationalized by the exchange of stock for infusions of public funds. With the infusions of public funds across private industry, comes the inevitable "strings" that put government in control of the recipient industry.

President Obama and the Democrat-led Congress appear eager to apply this socialist principle by taking control of private industry in exchange for the public funds they are redistributing.

Acquiescence to Kevin Rudd's call for a new global system of democratic socialism will destroy America's prosperity, and relegate the United States to a position inferior to the new global economic authority. The international community first proposed its New International Economic Order in the 1970s, and never abandoned its dream of controlling the global economy. Advocates now appear to be on the brink of realizing this goal.

Until now, the United States has been the primary obstacle by refusing to participate, or even recognize a new socialist global economic authority. The new Obama administration, however, is sending many signals that it will look more favorably at socialist policies, both domestically and internationally.

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